Snow flies self-amputate freezing limbs to sustain behavior at sub-zero temperatures.

ABSTRACT: Temperature profoundly impacts all living creatures. In spite of the thermodynamic constraints on biology, some animals have evolved to live and move in extremely cold environments. Here, we investigate behavioral mechanisms of cold tolerance in the snow fly (Chionea spp.), a flightless crane fly that is active throughout the winter in boreal and alpine environments of the northern hemisphere. Using thermal imaging, we show that adult snow flies maintain the ability to walk down to an average body temperature of -7°C. At this supercooling limit, ice crystallization occurs within the snow fly's hemolymph and rapidly spreads throughout the body, resulting in death. However, we discovered that snow flies frequently survive freezing by rapidly amputating legs before ice crystallization can spr

SUBMITTER: Golding D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10842534 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature