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Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae

In temperate environments, insects appearing in several generations in the growth season typically have to decide during the larval period whether to develop into adulthood, or to postpone adult emergence until next season by entering a species-specific diapause stage. This decision is typically gui...

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Autores principales: Friberg, Magne, Aalberg Haugen, Inger M., Dahlerus, Josefin, Gotthard, Karl, Wiklund, Christer
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3021710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20953962
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1804-0
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author Friberg, Magne
Aalberg Haugen, Inger M.
Dahlerus, Josefin
Gotthard, Karl
Wiklund, Christer
author_facet Friberg, Magne
Aalberg Haugen, Inger M.
Dahlerus, Josefin
Gotthard, Karl
Wiklund, Christer
author_sort Friberg, Magne
collection PubMed
description In temperate environments, insects appearing in several generations in the growth season typically have to decide during the larval period whether to develop into adulthood, or to postpone adult emergence until next season by entering a species-specific diapause stage. This decision is typically guided by environmental cues experienced during development. An early decision makes it possible to adjust growth rate, which would allow the growing larva to respond to time stress involved in direct development, whereas a last-minute decision would instead allow the larva to use up-to-date information about which developmental pathway is the most favourable under the current circumstances. We study the timing of the larval pathway decision-making between entering pupal winter diapause and direct development in three distantly related butterflies (Pieris napi, Araschnia levana and Pararge aegeria). We pinpoint the timing of the larval diapause decision by transferring larvae from first to last instars from long daylength (inducing direct development) to short daylength conditions (inducing diapause), and vice versa. Results show that the pathway decision is typically made in the late instars in all three species, and that the ability to switch developmental pathway late in juvenile life is conditional; larvae more freely switched from diapause to direct development than in the opposite direction. We contend that this asymmetry is influenced by the additional physiological preparations needed to survive the long and cold winter period, and that the reluctance to make a late decision to enter diapause has the potential to be a general trait among temperate insects.
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spelling pubmed-30217102011-02-22 Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae Friberg, Magne Aalberg Haugen, Inger M. Dahlerus, Josefin Gotthard, Karl Wiklund, Christer Oecologia Physiological ecology - Original Paper In temperate environments, insects appearing in several generations in the growth season typically have to decide during the larval period whether to develop into adulthood, or to postpone adult emergence until next season by entering a species-specific diapause stage. This decision is typically guided by environmental cues experienced during development. An early decision makes it possible to adjust growth rate, which would allow the growing larva to respond to time stress involved in direct development, whereas a last-minute decision would instead allow the larva to use up-to-date information about which developmental pathway is the most favourable under the current circumstances. We study the timing of the larval pathway decision-making between entering pupal winter diapause and direct development in three distantly related butterflies (Pieris napi, Araschnia levana and Pararge aegeria). We pinpoint the timing of the larval diapause decision by transferring larvae from first to last instars from long daylength (inducing direct development) to short daylength conditions (inducing diapause), and vice versa. Results show that the pathway decision is typically made in the late instars in all three species, and that the ability to switch developmental pathway late in juvenile life is conditional; larvae more freely switched from diapause to direct development than in the opposite direction. We contend that this asymmetry is influenced by the additional physiological preparations needed to survive the long and cold winter period, and that the reluctance to make a late decision to enter diapause has the potential to be a general trait among temperate insects. Springer-Verlag 2010-10-17 2011 /pmc/articles/PMC3021710/ /pubmed/20953962 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1804-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2010 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Physiological ecology - Original Paper
Friberg, Magne
Aalberg Haugen, Inger M.
Dahlerus, Josefin
Gotthard, Karl
Wiklund, Christer
Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
title Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
title_full Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
title_fullStr Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
title_full_unstemmed Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
title_short Asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
title_sort asymmetric life-history decision-making in butterfly larvae
topic Physiological ecology - Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3021710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20953962
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1804-0
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