Chill sensitive insects risk neuromuscular dysfunction in cold environments due to a mismatch between active and passive membrane ion transport. This is particularly critical for muscle cells function where hypothermic loss of Na+/K+-ATPase activity may cause depolarization due to loss of ion balance and decreased electrogenic polarization. To investigate this further we examined 10 Drosophila species with varying cold tolerances to quantify if chill-tolerant species defend membrane polarization better at low temperature through enhanced Na+-K+-ATPase activity. Muscle membrane potential measurements was measured in all species at 21°C and 0°C, with and without ouabain (a Na^+-K^+-ATPase blocker) . At benign temperature all species had similar muscle membrane potential of ~ -55 mV and in accordance with our hypothesis cold sensitive species exhibited a larger hypothermic depolarization. Further, measurements of membrane potential with ouabain showed that the cold induced depolarization in sensitive species was predominantly caused by a loss a Na+/K+ mediated electrogenic polarization. Subsequent measurements of whole animal standard metabolic rate at high and low temperature showed that the improved preservation of membrane in cold tolerant species came at a low cost as the more cold tolerant species were characterized by a lower mass specific metabolic rate despite the potential costs of maintained ion pumping in these cod adapted species.