Thermocouple design for measuring temperatures of small insects

Abstract

Contact thermocouples often are used to measure surface body temperature changes of insects during cold exposure. However, small temperature changes of minute insects can be difficult to detect, particularly during the measurement of supercooling points. We developed two thermocouple designs, which use 0.51 mm diameter or 0.127 mm diameter copper-constantan wires, to improve our ability to resolve insect exotherms. We tested the designs with adults from three parasitoid species: Tetrastichus planipennisi, Spathius agrili, and S. floridanus. These species are

Citation

Hanson, A.A.; Venette, R.C. 2013. Thermocouple design for measuring temperatures of small insects. CryoLetters. 34(3): 261-266.