New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
Selected temperatures of an alpine weta Hemideina maori from southern New Zealand
Jennifer Rock
Sarah Cook
Tara Murray
Jenny Thomas
Ian Jamieson*
Department of Zoology
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
email: ian.jamieson@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
*Author for correspondence.
Abstract We examined the relationship between thermal preference (selected body temperature or “Tsel”) and microhabitat temperature of a nocturnal, alpine weta Hemideina maori (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae), in the southern part of New Zealand. To examine diel variation in thermal preference, we measured Tsel five times over a 24-h period in the laboratory and compared these temperatures to weta microhabitat temperatures in the wild. Tsel ranged from 4.3 to 29.3°C, but the distribution of temperatures was skewed, towards the cooler end of the thermal gradient, with an overall median and mean of c. 13°C. The frequency of Tsel values was bimodal, with peaks at a relatively narrow range of cool temperatures between 5 and 8°C (33%) and at a slightly broader range of warmer temperatures between 13 and 21°C (52%). Tsel values did not vary with time of day, but differed significantly between individuals. Comparisons with microhabitat temperature showed that weta at 1250 m a.s.l. on the Rock and Pillar Range, Otago, had only limited opportunity to achieve Tsel and this was only possible during daylight hours, when weta are normally inactive.
Keywords alpine; Anostostomatidae; insect; nocturnal; selected temperature; thermal preference; weta
Z01026 Received 4 July 2001; accepted 24 October 2001
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2002, Vol. 29: 73–78
0301–4223/02/2902–0073 $7.00/0 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2002
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