Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorrhina Portentosa): Comparative Study in Respiratory Rates between Tropical and Desert environments

Abstract

The Madagascar Hissing Cockroach or the Gromphadorrhina Portentosa is an ectotherm which primarily depends on behavioral mechanisms to maintain body temperature. Therefore, our experiment is going to observe a cockroaches respiratory rates in different controlled environments. We will take both non-humid and humid climate and record the cockroaches CO2 ppm to see and compare if their respiration rates will increase or decrease. We will capture results by having 5 trials of 5 minutes with every 4 seconds recording their CO2 rate. We hypothesized that with the varying climates that the cockroaches would had a higher respiration rate in the humid chamber. From the results we interpreted our findings by seeing that the cockroaches did not have a significant difference between both of the climates. Which lead us to further our studies with manipulating our experiment.