A laboratory experiment verified evaporative cooling by the cicada, Diceroprocta apache

These observations led to a series of investigations and papers by Eric Toolson and Neil Hadley that showed conclusively that cicadas, including Diceroprocta, are capable of evaporative cooling. In one of these studies, Eric Toolson (1987) collected Diceroprocta from a mesquite tree and placed them in an environmental chamber. The chamber temperature was kept at 45.5°C; however, Diceroprocta was able to maintain its body temperature at least 2.9°C lower. Since the cicadas within the chamber did not have access to any cool microclimates, Toolson concluded that they must be evaporatively cooling. To verify this hypothesis, he placed cicadas in the environmental chamber and then raised the relative humidity to 100%. At 100% relative humidity, the body temperatures of the cicadas quickly increased to the temperature of the environmental chamber. When Toolson reduced relative humidity to 0%, the cicadas cooled approximately 4°C within minutes.