The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), has been the most important pest of cotton (Gossypium spp.) wherever it occurs. Although eradication programs in the United States have reduced the range of this pest, the weevil remains an intractable problem in subtropical Texas, Mexico, and much of South America. A key to managing the weevil in the subtropics an...

The marsupial tammar wallaby has the longest period of embryonic diapause of any mammal. Reproduction in the tammar is seasonal, regulated by photoperiod and also lactation. Reactivation is triggered by falling daylength after the austral summer solstice in December. Young are born late January and commence a 9-10-month lactation. Females mate immediately after birth. The resulting conceptus de...

Larvae of the bamboo borer, Omphisa fuscidentalis are in diapause for more than nine months (Singtripop, T., Wanichaneewa, S., Tsuzuki, S., Sakurai, S. 1999. Larval growth and diapause in a tropical moth, Omphisa fuscidentalis Hampson. Zool. Sci. 16, 725-733). To examine the endocrine mechanisms underlying this larval diapause, we assayed the responsiveness of the diapausing larvae to 20-hydrox...

Annual killifish adapted to life in seasonally ephemeral water-bodies exhibit desiccation resistant eggs that can undergo diapause, a period of developmental arrest, enabling them to traverse the otherwise inhospitable dry season. Environmental cues that potentially indicate the season can govern whether eggs enter a stage of diapause mid-way through development or skip this diapause and instea...

Recent studies on adult diapause in the western tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus Knight (Heteroptera: Miridae), have highlighted the need to identify a reliable external marker for the internal changes that differentiate a normal animal from one that is overwintering. To test the efficacy of a color based discrimination system, L. hesperus of both genders were reared from eggs through day 10...

Diapause in insects is herein defined as a state of arrested growth and development which, unlike quiescence, persists until the animal undergoes a certain, well-defined sequence of physiological events that enables development to be resumed. In the green blowfly, Lucilia caesar L., a facultative diapause occurs in the 3rd-instar larva after cessation of feeding but before puparium formation. T...

Gut microbiota mediate the nutritional metabolism and play important roles in human obesity. Diapausing insects accumulate large fat reserves and develop obese phenotypes in order to survive unfavorable conditions. However, the possibility of an association between gut microbiota and insect diapause has not been investigated. We used the Illumina MiSeq platform to compare gut bacterial communit...

The spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby), is an important mortality agent of native spruces throughout North America. The life-cycle duration of this species varies from 1 to 3 years depending temperature. The univoltine cycle (one generation per year) is thought to maximize outbreak risk and accelerate host mortality in established outbreaks. Prepupal diapause is associated with the ...

Photoperiodic diapause is a crucial adaptation to seasonal environmental variation in a wide range of arthropods, but relatively little is known regarding the molecular basis of this important trait. In temperate populations of the mosquito Aedes albopictus, exposure to short-day (SD) lengths causes the female to produce diapause eggs. Tropical populations do not undergo a photoperiodic diapaus...

In temperate regions, the shortening day length informs many insect species to prepare for winter by inducing diapause. The adult diapause of the linden bug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, involves a reproductive arrest accompanied by energy storage, reduction of metabolic needs, and preparation to withstand low temperatures. By contrast, nondiapause animals direct nutrient energy to muscle activity and ...