Something to Hiss About: Does a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach’s Mass Affect its Metabolic Rate?

Abstract

Many investigations on how mass affects the metabolic rate of ectotherms have been done, but provide varying results. We tested the respiration rate of Gromphadorhina protentosa, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, to provide more data. We ran three-minute trials on twelve different cockroaches where we hypothesized, based on Bergmann’s Rule, organisms with a smaller mass will have a higher metabolic rate. We placed the cockroaches in small respiration chambers and measured the oxygen consumed. The trend of our results supported our hypothesis, as the smaller cockroaches had a higher metabolic rate.