How varying environmental temperatures affects the metabolic rate of Gromphadorhina portentosa

Abstract

Ectotherms, like the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, rely on external temperatures to warm themselves internally. In our experiment we used a CO₂ probe to measure the CO₂ output in the three different temperatures (17°C, 21°C, and 25°C) and compared the CO₂ output based on the data collected. To test our hypothesis we ran three trials to get more than one set of data. Based on the data, we observed that in colder temperatures their metabolic rate increased and in warmer temperatures it increased as well. Our results did not completely support our hypothesis, instead the output for room temperatures was higher than the colder temperatures. (Cobbs 2017, Ferguson et al. 2018) The Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches we exposed to colder temperatures then they were used to making their metabolic rates rise.