Bugged Out: How Ambient Temperature Affects the CO2 Production of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches

Abstract

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) are ectotherms native to the island of Madagascar (Samuluk et al. 2018). In this experiment we wanted to find out how ambient temperature affects the average CO2 production of these unique cockroaches. To test this question we ran three different tests at different temperatures of 11-14℃, 25℃, and 28-29℃ and monitored the CO2 production, using a CO2 gas sensor and loggerpro software. We predicted that as ambient temperature increased, the average CO2 production would also increase. We hypothesized that at higher temperatures, the average CO2 production will be higher than at lower temperatures. From our results, our hypothesis was supported. We found that at higher temperatures, the average CO2 production was much higher than at low temperatures. From our studies, we concluded that ambient temperature does indeed have an effect on average CO2 production.