Reduction of respiration rates by forming aggregations in diapausing adults of the shield bug, Parastrachia japonensis

Parastrachia japonensis adults in diapause live mostly in aggregated conditions and can survive more than 1 year on only water. In this study, we demonstrated that diapausing adults had a high tendency to form clusters with no sexual bias. When 3–40 insects were enclosed in chambers of equal volume used to measure respiration, oxygen consumption was reduced to nearly half that when a single individual was enclosed. However, this reduction in metabolic rate was lost when the bugs were prevented from having physical contact with other individuals, partly lost by being enclosed with dead individuals, totally lost with the ones being washed with dietylether, and not influenced by humidity. No such effect of aggregation on respiration was found in adults in the reproductive stage, nor in two other diapausing bugs, Erthesina fullo and Plautia crossata, which hibernate in groups. From these results, we concluded that the reduction in oxygen consumption in P. japonensis was due mostly to physical contact with other individuals and partly to chemical cue that functioned to settle them down and resulted in a greatly reduced respiration rate. This trait is an effective strategy that allows diapausing adults to conserve energy and prolong survival.