H. A. MacMillan

The freeze-avoiding mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) survives prolonged exposure to stressful cold by mitigating ionoregulatory collapse

This study examines how mountain pine beetle larvae maintain ion balance during cold exposure and finds that ionoregulatory collapse limits their cold tolerance.

Effects of a high cholesterol diet on Drosophila chill tolerance are highly context-dependent

This study examines how a high cholesterol diet affects chill tolerance in Drosophila, finding context-dependent effects on acute and chronic chilling injury mechanisms.

Tropical butterflies lose central nervous system function in the cold from a spreading depolarization event

This study shows that cold exposure induces spreading depolarization in butterfly brains, leading to loss of central nervous system function and supporting its role in the critical thermal minimum across insects.

The digestive system of a cricket pulverizes polyethylene microplastics

This study shows that crickets can fragment ingested microplastics into smaller pieces during digestion, potentially acting as agents of plastic transformation in the environment.

Characterizing microplastic ingestion, transformation, and excretion in insects using fluorescent plastics

The paper develops a method to isolate and characterize fluorescent microplastics in insects using a combined workflow of tissue dissection, digestion, filtering, and imaging.

Mortality without springing a leak: Locust gut epithelia do not become more permeable to fluorescent dextran and bacteria in the cold

This study investigates whether cold stress increases gut permeability in locusts by testing bacterial and fluorescent dextran leakage, finding no significant increase.

Plasticity in Na+/K+-ATPase thermal kinetics drives variation in the critical thermal minimum of adult Drosophila melanogaster

This study shows that cold acclimation in Drosophila melanogaster lowers the critical thermal minimum by reducing Na+/K+-ATPase sensitivity to temperature, without changing pump abundance.

Elemental stoichiometry and insect chill tolerance: Evolved and plastic changes in organismal Na+ and K+ content in Drosophila

This study examines how acclimation and adaptation affect chill tolerance and elemental stoichiometry in Drosophila, finding acclimation has a greater impact than adaptation.

Fruitful female fecundity after feeding Gryllodes sigillatus royal jelly

This study investigates the effects of royal jelly on Gryllodes sigillatus growth and reproduction, finding sex-dependent increases in female body size and egg production.

Ingestion of microplastic fibres, but not microplastic beads, impacts growth rates in the tropical house cricket Gryllodes sigillatus

This study finds that high concentrations of polyethylene terephthalate microfibers reduce female Gryllodes sigillatus body size and weight, while polyethylene beads have no significant effect.

A lack of repeatability creates the illusion of a trade-off between basal and plastic cold tolerance.

The paper tests the thermotolerance-plasticity trade-off hypothesis in Drosophila melanogaster and finds that apparent correlations are due to regression to the mean, not physiological constraints.

Chill coma onset and recovery fail to reveal true variation in thermal performance among populations of Drosophila melanogaster

The study finds that Drosophila melanogaster populations from different climates do not consistently differ in chill coma onset and recovery but do differ in chronic cold survival, highlighting the need to measure multiple thermal traits.

Thermal acclimation alters the roles of Na+/K+-ATPase activity in a tissue-specific manner in Drosophila melanogaster

This study examines how cold acclimation affects Na+/K+-ATPase activity in different tissues of Drosophila melanogaster, showing tissue-specific changes in thermal sensitivity and activity that relate to cold tolerance.

A simple and dynamic thermal gradient device for measuring thermal performance in small ectotherms

The paper introduces a thermal gradient device for measuring thermal performance in small ectotherms, demonstrating its use in generating survival curves and analyzing thermal effects on growth rates.

Hyperkalemia, not apoptosis, accurately predicts insect chilling injury

This study investigates the mechanism of chilling injury in locusts and finds that hyperkalemia, not apoptosis, is the key predictor of injury severity.

Autumn larval cold tolerance does not predict the northern range limit of a widespread butterfly species

This study examines whether autumn cold tolerance limits the northern range of Giant Swallowtail butterflies, finding that cold tolerance metrics do not significantly predict habitat suitability.

Warm periods in repeated cold stresses protect Drosophila against ionoregulatory collapse, chilling injury, and reproductive deficits

This study shows that warm periods during repeated cold stresses improve survival, recovery, and reproduction in Drosophila melanogaster by mitigating ionoregulatory collapse.

Active transport of brilliant blue FCF across the Drosophila midgut and Malpighian tubule epithelia

The paper investigates whether Drosophila actively transport Brilliant blue FCF across midgut and Malpighian tubule epithelia under cold stress and finds they can mobilize the dye via an active transcellular pathway.

An impressive capacity for cold tolerance plasticity protects against ionoregulatory collapse in the disease vector, Aedes aegypti

This study shows that Aedes aegypti larvae and adults can acclimate to cold temperatures by maintaining ion balance, which may help them spread to colder regions.

Anti-diuretic activity of a CAPA neuropeptide can compromise Drosophila chill tolerance

This study shows that CAPA neuropeptide affects Drosophila chill tolerance by altering Malpighian tubule ion and water transport, with low doses impairing and high doses improving cold tolerance.

Functional Plasticity of the gut and the Malpighian tubules underlies cold acclimation and mitigates cold-induced hyperkalemia in Drosophila melanogaster

This study shows that cold acclimation in Drosophila improves chill tolerance by enhancing Malpighian tubule and gut ion transport, preventing cold-induced hyperkalemia without relying on ATPase activity changes.

Thermal Acclimation Mitigates Cold-Induced Paracellular Leak From The Drosophila Gut

The paper shows that cold exposure increases paracellular leak in Drosophila gut epithelia, but cold acclimation reduces this leak and improves cold tolerance.