Roles of the Tent in Behavioral Thermoregulation of Eastern Tent Caterpillars
1988
Joos, B. | Casey, T. M. | Fitzgerald, T. D. | Buttemer, W. A.
Eastern tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanuum) are behavioral thermoregulations and achieve higher body temperatures than expected for ectotherms of similar body size. Construction of a communal silken tent and aggregation behavior are also conspicuous features of their life history. Operative temperature (Tₑ) models were used to evaluate the roles of the tent and of aggregation behaviors in the thermoregulation of tent caterpillars. When solar radiation was present, Tₑ of models on the tent surface were higher than those of models away from the tent. Temperatures of a model aggregation on the tent surface were higher than those of a single caterpillar model. In the presence of solar radiation, the interior of the tent was always at least 4°C above air temperature. These data are used to evaluate the quantitative significance of the tent, aggregation behavior, and orientation to incident radiation in the thermoregulation of tent caterpillars.
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