THE RESPIRATORY GAS EXCHANGE IN TERMOPSIS NEVADENSIS

¹ From the Division of Physiology, University of California Medical School, Berkeley, California

The oxygen consumption of Termopsis nevadensis does not decrease materially with falling oxygen tension until a concentration of approximately two per cent is reached. Below this tension the affinity of the animals for oxygen is so marked that substantially all the available gas is consumed.

In the absence of oxygen the organism is able to respire anaërobically, although at a reduced rate, for as long as two days without injury. During this time the animals are in a state of immobility from which they recover soon after readmission of air. After exposure to anaërobic conditions no indication of oxygen debt was found.

These termites are able to exist and respire normally in carbon dioxide as high as 20 per cent. Higher concentrations tend to induce a condition of anæsthesia, which, however, is reversible.

Under anaërobic conditions, and possibly also in the presence of oxygen, the termites evolve an undetermined gas which may be hydrogen or methane. The production of this gas depends on the integrity of the intestinal fauna, since it is not evolved by defaunated termites.

The respiratory quotient of both normal and freshly defaunated termites is approximately unity, but in starved defaunated termites it falls considerably.

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