Voltinism

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Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism.

Contents

  • (biology) Less than univoltine; having a brood or generation less often than once per year
  • or (adjective) referring to organisms whose generation time is more than one year. [1]

Examples

The speckled wood butterfly is univoltine in the northern part of its range, e.g. northern Scandinavia. Adults emerge in late spring, mate, and die shortly after laying eggs; their offspring will grow until pupation, enter diapause in anticipation of the winter, and emerge as adults the following year – thus resulting in a single generation of butterflies per year. In southern Scandinavia, the same species is bivoltine [2] – here, the offspring of spring-emerging adults will develop directly into adults during the summer, mate, and die. Their offspring in turn constitute a second generation, which is the generation that will enter winter diapause and emerge as adults (and mate) in the spring of the following year. This results in a pattern of one short-lived generation (c. 2–3 months) that breeds during the summer, and one long-lived generation (c. 9–10 months) that diapauses through the winter and breeds in the spring. The Rocky Mountain parnassian and the High brown fritillary are more examples of univoltine butterfly species. [2] [3]

The bee species Macrotera portalis is bivoltine, and is estimated to have about 2 or 3 broods annually. During winter, individuals remain in diapause, in their pharate or prepupal stage. This diapause stage continues until metamorphosis in the next spring or summer, whereupon the bees emerge as adults. [4] Another example of a bivoltine species is Cyclosa turbinata which is known to reproduce once in the late spring and once again in the fall.

The Dawson's burrowing bee is an example of a univoltine insect of the order Hymenoptera. The brood of one winter will remain dormant underground until the following winter, and then will surface from their burrows to mate once, and establish new nests.

Partial voltinism

The term partial voltinism is used to refer to two different (but not necessarily exclusive) situations:

Evolution

The number of breeding cycles in a year is under genetic control in many species [7] and they are evolved in response to the environment. Many phytophagous species that are dependent on seasonal plant resources are univoltine. Some such species have the ability to diapause for a large part of the year, typically during a cold winter. [8] Others that bore in wood or other low-grade, but plentiful, food material may spend nearly the entire year feeding, with only brief pupal, adult and egg stages to complete a univoltine life cycle. Yet other species that live in tropical regions with little seasonality may be highly multivoltine, with several generations feeding on constantly growing vegetation (such as some species of Saturniidae), or continually renewed detritus, such as Drosophila and many other genera of flies with a life cycle of just a week or two. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Megachile rotundata</i> Species of bee

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<i>Gonepteryx rhamni</i> Species of butterfly

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<i>Polygonia c-album</i> Species of butterfly

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The European corn borer, also known as the European corn worm or European high-flyer, is a moth of the family Crambidae which includes other grass moths. It is a pest of grain, particularly corn. The insect is native to Europe, originally infesting varieties of millet, including broom corn. The European corn borer was first reported in North America in 1917 in Massachusetts, but was probably introduced from Europe several years earlier. Since its initial discovery in the Americas, the insect has spread into Canada and westward across the United States to the Rocky Mountains.

<i>Dolycoris baccarum</i> Species of true bug

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<i>Osmia bicornis</i> Species of bee

Osmia bicornis is a species of mason bee, and is known as the red mason bee due to its covering of dense gingery hair. It is a solitary bee that nests in holes or stems and is polylectic, meaning it forages pollen from various different flowering plants. These bees can be seen aggregating together and nests in preexisting hollows, choosing not to excavate their own. These bees are not aggressive; they will only sting if handled very roughly and are safe to be closely observed by children. Females only mate once, usually with closely related males. Further, females can determine the sex ratio of their offspring based on their body size, where larger females will invest more in diploid females eggs than small bees. These bees also have trichromatic colour vision and are important pollinators in agriculture.

<i>Compsilura concinnata</i> Species of fly

Compsilura concinnata is a parasitoid native to Europe that was introduced to North America in 1906 to control the population of an exotic forest, univoltine, spongy moth named Lymantria dispar. It is an endoparasitoid of larvae and lives with its host for most of its life. Eventually the parasitoid ends up killing the host and occasionally eating it. It attacks over 200 host species, mainly insects from the Orders: Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. Since this parasite has the ability to attack many different types of hosts, the organism has spilled over from the intended forest systems into other areas, like agricultural fields, affecting cabbage pests including the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia); the cabbage worm ; and even other invasive species such as the brown-tail moth. However, it also attacks native, non-pest insects such as the Cecropia moth and American moon moth.

<i>Halictus ligatus</i> Species of bee

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<i>Exoneura robusta</i> Species of bee

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<i>Halictus sexcinctus</i> Species of bee

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<i>Macrotera portalis</i> Species of bee

Macrotera portalis is a species of communal, ground nesting, partially bivoltine bees found in arid grasslands and desert regions of North America. An oligolectic bee, M. portalis gathers pollen only from plants in the genus Sphaeralcea and has patterns of seasonal emergence to survive the harsh conditions of the desert, with emergence delayed until monsoon rains arrive.

<i>Pison spinolae</i> Species of insect

Pison spinolae, commonly known as mason wasp, is a solitary wasp of the family Crabronidae, found throughout New Zealand.

<i>Nomada marshamella</i> Species of bee

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<i>Ceratina calcarata</i> Species of bee

Ceratina calcarata, the spurred ceratina, is a species of carpenter bee in the family Apidae. It is found in eastern North America. This species ranges from Georgia, USA north to Ontario, Canada and east to Nova Scotia, Canada. This bee is a common generalist, native pollinator, it pollinates plants like watermelon and cucumber very effectively. C. calcarata adds to the productivity of a wide range of ecological and agricultural systems due to its wide range and abundance. This small bee is becoming a model organism in the scientific research of social evolution. C. calcarata is the first subsocial bee species to have its genome published, allowing researchers to investigate the evolutionary origins of social behaviour.

References

  1. ↑ Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Carde (2009). Encyclopedia of INSECTS. 2nd edition, Academic Press , Elsevier 1169 pp. Link: http://ibimm.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/enciclopedia-de-insetos-ingles.pdf
  2. 1 2 Aalberg Haugen IM, Berger D, and Gotthard K. 2012. The evolution of alternative developmental pathways: footprints of selection on life-history traits in a butterfly. 12pp. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 25:7, Available online:
  3. ↑ Shepard, Jon; Guppy, Crispin (2011). Butterflies of British Columbia: Including Western Alberta, Southern Yukon, the Alaska Panhandle, Washington, Northern Oregon, Northern Idaho, and Northwestern Montana. UBC Press. ISBN   9780774844376.
  4. ↑ Buchmann, Stephen L. "Bees", Bees , Retrieved on 15 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Seger J. 1983. Partial bivoltinism may cause alternating sex-ratio biases that favor eusociality. 4pp. Nature, 301:59-62, Available online:
  6. ↑ Kivelä SM, Svensson B, Tiwe A, and Gotthard K. 2015. Thermal plasticity of growth and development varies adaptively among alternative developmental pathways. 13pp. Evolution, 69:9, Available online:
  7. ↑ Coates BS, Sumerford DV, and Hellmich RL. 2004. Geographic and voltinism differentiation among North American Ostrinia nubilalis (European corn borer) mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase haplotypes. 9pp. Journal of Insect Science, 4:35, Available online:
  8. ↑ Hunter, M.D. and J.N. McNeil. 1997 Host-plant quality influences diapause and voltinism in a polyphagous insect herbivore. Ecology 78: 977-986.
  9. ↑ Timothy Duane Schowalter (2011). Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach. Academic Press. p. 159. ISBN   978-0-12-381351-0.
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