JOURNAL 



OF 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



Vol. 7 DECEMBER, 1914 No. 6 



SOME DATA ON THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE AND 

 MOISTURE ON THE RATE OF INSECT METABOLISM 



By Thomas J. Headlee, Ph. D., New Brunswick, N. J. 



Introduction 



As more pressing duties would permit, the writer, while connected 

 with the Agricultural College and Experiment Station of Kansas, 

 devoted his time to the study of the relation existing between the tem- 

 perature and moisture factors of the environment and the insect life 

 subjected to them. The work covered only a small part of the field 

 that had been laid out and covered that in a very incomplete manner. 

 Nevertheless a considerable amount of data partly confirmatory of 

 previous work and partly bringing new facts to light has been accumu- 

 lated, and, inasmuch as the progress then made may otherwise be lost, 

 the writer has decided to put the matter in shape for publication. 



Temperature 



Recently temperature, as directly affecting the insect, has both in 

 this country and in Europe received considerable attention. Bach- 

 metjew^ in Europe has summarized the relationship of temperature to 

 insect metabolism in the form of a general curve which was brought to 

 the attention of the Association of Economic Entomologists at the 

 Boston meeting in the year 1910. In a series of stimulating papers, 

 Sanderson 2 in this country has pointed out that the rate of insect 



1 Bachmetjew, P., Experimentelle Entomologishe Studien, Erster Band, Leipzig 

 1901 and Zweiter Band, Sophia 1907. 



2 Sanderson, E. D., particularly "The Relation of Temperature to the Growth of 

 Insects." Jour, of Econ. Ent., vol. Ill, pp. 113-139. 



