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REPLIES TO FORUM: INSECTS AND TEMPERATURE—SOME COMMENTS ON A GENERAL THEORY1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Robert J. Lamb
Affiliation:
Cereal Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 195 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2M9, Canada

Extract

Gilbert and Raworth (1996) propose a general theory to explain the effects of temperature on the development and growth rates of insects. The theory is evolutionary rather than physiological. They propose that insects are selected for a high rate of increase (i.e., rapid growth and large size) in spring, and for rapid development in summer. They claim that these selection pressures explain five “puzzles:” (1) the linearity of the relationship between development rate and temperature, (2) a reduction in the genetic variation of development rate at high temperature (i.e., average midsummer temperature), (3) a reduction in the genetic variation of growth rate at low temperature (i.e., average spring temperature), (4) slow development at the time of emergence after overwintering, and (5) a greater reduction in development rate than growth rate at low temperature.

Type
Reply
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1998

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References

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