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Breathing bugs
News from The Scientist 2003, 4(1):20030124-01 doi:10.1186/20030124-01
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Insects have been assumed to breathe through a system of tracheal tubes (considered passive air channels), with gaseous exchange being driven by body movements or hemolymph circulation. However, the exact mechanisms involved in insect respiration are difficult to visualize and have therefore been difficult to characterize. In the January 24 Science, Mark W. Westneat and colleagues at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA, show that insects have an active mechanical mechanism of respiration similar to the inflation and deflation of vertebrate lungs (Science, 299:558-560, January 24, 2003).
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