Cricket, Party of Ten: Group Size Has a Negative Effect on Cricket Respiration

Abstract

Ectotherms are organisms that are not able to regulate their internal temperature. Previous experiments have been conducted regarding metabolic rates of ectotherms within a group, but there is a lack of this research on crickets specifically. Our experiment measures the CO2 production of Acheta domesticus, more commonly known as house crickets, in group sizes of one, five, and ten crickets. Our hypothesis is that as group size increased, individual cricket metabolic rate would increase because of the interaction between the subjects. We measured the CO2 production for each group in a respiration chamber held at the ambient temperature of the room. The data does not support our hypothesis because as group size increased, individual metabolic rate decreased. In order to reach a stronger conclusion, further research should be conducted to confirm the results of our experiment.