Cold tolerance of the Australian spur-throated locust, Austracris guttulosa

The cold tolerance of overwintering adult Spur-throated locusts, Austracris guttulosa, was examined using measures of supercooling point relative to gender, environmental acclimation and feeding state as well as mortality for a range of sub-zero temperature exposure treatments. Freezing was lethal and supercooling points ranged from −6 to −12.8 °C, but were statistically independent of fresh mass, body water content, acclimation, and/or gut content in fed and starved individuals. A significant interaction effect of gender and feeding status showed that the larger bodied females had decreased supercooling capacity with increased food material in the digestive tract. Post-freezing dissections revealed differences in the amount of freshly consumed and retained food material in the digestive tract between fed and starved individuals of each gender, which could explain this effect based on inoculation of ice crystallisation by food particles. Above supercooling temperatures, neither gender nor the rate of cooling had a significant effect on mortality. When cooled from 25 °C at 0.1 or 0.5 °C min−1 to a range of experimental minimum temperatures held for 3 h, survival was ⩾74% to −7 °C, but declined sharply to ⩽37% when cooled to −8 °C or lower. Although the laboratory experiments reported here suggest that A. guttulosa is not freeze tolerant and unable to rapidly cold harden, exposure to typical cold and frosty nights that very rarely reach below −8 °C as a night minimum in the field would be unlikely to cause mortality in the vast majority of overwintering aggregations.

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► Supercooling points ranged from −6 to −12.8 °C and freezing was lethal.
► Larger bodied females supercool less with increased food in the digestive tract.
► The rate of cooling had no effect on pre-freeze mortality.
► Survival when cooled from 25 °C at 0.1 or 0.5 °C min-1 was ⩾74% to −7 °C, but ⩽37% at ⩽−8 °C.
► Results are discussed in terms of overwintering Austracris guttulosa survival in the field.