THE EFFECTS OF OXYGEN POISONING ON THE POST-EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR OF A CHALCID WASP

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Abstract
Five different developmental stages of the insect Mormoniella vitripennis were compressed with 5 and 10 atmospheres of O2, N2, or He. High pressures of the metabolically inert gases have little or no effect on the development of the immature wasp or the behavior of adults, but high pressures of O2 are toxic at certain stages. Epidermal differentiation is blocked when wasps are exposed prior to the initiation of adult development. The high sensitivity of the early prepupa compared with the chilled dia-pausing larva or early developing adult correlates with the high rate of division and rapid differentiation of epidermal cells occurring in the early prepupa. The epidermal differentiation of wasps exposed early in adult development is unaffected except by lethal exposures; however, wasps in this stage of development fail to emerge after sub-lethal O2 exposure because muscle differentiation ceases. Wasps exposed just prior to eclosion remain paralyzed within their pupal cuticles even after their respiration returns to the normal rate. The loss of motor activity and coordination during brief exposure of adult wasps as well as the effectiveness of short exposures in blocking the emergence of wasps exposed just prior to their eclosion suggests that the primary effect of O2 poisoning adults is on the nervous system and that the gradual increase in O2 sensitivity during adult development and imaginal life reflects an increasing sensitivity of this system to O2 poisoning.