However, tracheae in the head did not scale with mass, suggesting that there is a large safety margin for oxygen delivery in the head in the youngest animals. The diameters of major tracheae in the thorax increased isometrically with body mass. ![]() However, abdominal pumping and tracheal compression were only observed in larger, older caterpillars (>0.2 g body mass), suggesting that this hypoxic response increases during ontogeny. During abdominal pumping, both the compression frequency and fractional change in diameter of tracheae increased with body mass. ![]() Compression of tracheae induced by abdominal pumping drives external gas exchange, as evidenced by the high correlation between CO 2 emission peaks and body movements. Using synchrotron X-ray imaging in conjunction with high-speed flow-through respirometry, we show that Manduca sexta caterpillars cyclically contract their bodies in response to hypoxia, resulting in significant compressions of the tracheal system. ![]() Abdominal pumping in caterpillars has only been documented during molting.
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