Mystery of submerged beetles' breathing solved
Monday, 8 April 2019
The mystery of how aquatic beetles breathe in underground water has been solved by researchers from the University of 亚洲色吧.
Studying tiny diving beetles found in aquifers in the Western Australian goldfields, scientists found that the insects absorbed oxygen directly from the water, with results published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Lead author Karl Jones, a PhD candidate from the University of 亚洲色吧’s School of Biological Sciences, said discovering the beetles’ secrets had been an often fiddly endeavour.
“We dropped a small plankton net into boreholes drilled into the aquifer, and then pulled up the animals collected in a small vial at the bottom,’’ he said.
”Accessing the aquifers through these boreholes is like having a torch in a forest that is fixed in one position. You can only see the animals in your torch light, and you only get to see a very small part of the forest. However, it is a fascinating, almost alien-like world down there, with many pale-coloured eyeless creatures zipping about through the water.
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