Insects Amputate Their Own Legs to Survive Cold Temperatures, Study Shows

Retry (Chionea) is a genus of insects adapted to life in low temperatures. Although related to flies, they are more similar in appearance to spiders – these animals do not fly, but instead use their legs to run across the snow. A study by scientists at the University of Washington gives us an insight into the amazing mechanism they use to survive in cold environments.

To test how subzero temperatures affect the rebecca’s ability to move, the researchers placed the insects on cold lab plates and watched their behavior with a thermal imaging camera as the temperature slowly dropped. The animals moved freely even at -7 degrees Celsius, which would be lethal to most insects.

What surprised the researchers the most, however, was the behavior of the renos when the temperature began to exceed their endurance limits. As a result of contact with the cold ground, the body fluids in the legs of the insects began to freeze. In such a situation, the animals reject the freezing limbs – if they do not, the cold begins to spread rapidly through their bodies, leading to death.

“It’s gruesome,” said John Tuthill of the University of Washington, co-author of the study. – This icy wave can bring death with it, so insects amputate to prevent it.

As explained by Tuthill, the phenomenon is quite widespread – about 20 percent of the wild-gathered reindeers had missing legs. During the experiment, some individuals were able to shed as many as five out of six legs before succumbing to the low temperatures. Now researchers want to find out what mechanism allows animals to recognize which legs need to be amputated.

The researchers reported that kicking off the legs as a reaction to potentially freezing to death is a unique phenomenon. Although autoamputation also occurs in other flies, it is usually related to the desire to escape from a predator. There are muscles inside the legs of flies that allow them to throw back their limbs.

“It’s an extreme adaptation,” Erica McAlister of the Natural History Museum in London told The Guardian. She explained that this evolutionary adaptation could become redundant when mountainous areas lose their snow cover due to global warming.

“Once the snow is gone and this unique ability is no longer relevant, it can have a detrimental effect,” she added.