A comparative study on insect longevity: tropical moths do not differ from their temperate relatives

Holm, Sille; Kaasik, Ants; Javoiš, Juhan; Molleman, Freerk; Tammaru, Toomas

doi:10.1007/s10682-021-10150-9

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…To gain quantitative insight into the relative ages of captured animals, mark‐recapture data with wing damage information can be used (Ehrlich & Gilbert, 1973; Appendix S1). However, it may often be more practical to compare the remaining life span in captivity of individuals that differ in wing damage at capture (Holm et al, 2016; Holm et al, 2022; Molleman, Ding, Wang, & Carey, 2009; Muller et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fruit‐feeding butterflies depend on adult food for reproduction: Evidence from longitudinal body mass and abundance data

et al. 2022

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1. The degree to which variation in adult food availability affects the population dynamics of a species depends on its position on the capital-income breeding continuum. The long-lived butterflies that feed on fruits as adults constitute an example of Lepidoptera with a high degree of income breeding.2. For three species of fruit-feeding butterflies in Uganda, we assessed the contribution of income to breeding in the wild, and the consequences of variation in fruit availability for body mass and population dynamics. We interpreted body-mass loss within individuals as well as younger individuals having higher body mass than older ones as evidence for the depletion of capital reserves.3. Despite large sample sizes, we were able to show only modest body-mass loss in one species, indicating that large-bodied fruit-feeding butterflies are functionally income breeders in the wild. Butterfly body mass was sensitive to environmental factors, although the responses to fruit availability and weather parameters were dominated by interactive effects. In all three species, periods of higher availability of fruit were followed by periods of higher adult abundance three to five months later, fitting the egg-to-adult time. 4. Our results suggest that adult food is rapidly used for reproduction so that body mass remains stable and population size responds to adult food availability. 5. For these income breeding species, the frequent periods of low adult food availability may select for extended adult longevity for the purpose of postponing reproduction to the onset of more favourable conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fruit‐feeding butterflies depend on adult food for reproduction: Evidence from longitudinal body mass and abundance data

et al. 2022

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“…Adult body size is a key characteristic of any insect species as it affects a range of fitness‐related traits, such as fecundity (García‐Barros, 2000; Whitman, 2008), longevity (Holm et al, 2016, 2022) and dispersal ability (Freire et al, 2021; Sekar, 2012). Hence, the identification of life‐history traits related to body size is essential to deepen our understanding of how such conspicuous interspecific variation in insect body size has evolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do host plant use and seasonal life cycle relate to insect body size: A case study on European geometrid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

Seifert

Strutzenberger

Fiedler

2023

J of Evolutionary Biology

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We used European geometrid moths (>630 species) as a model group to investigate how life history traits linked to larval host plant use (i.e., diet breadth and host‐plant growth form) and seasonal life cycle (i.e., voltinism, overwintering stage and caterpillar phenology) are related to adult body size in holometabolous insect herbivores. To do so, we applied phylogenetic comparative methods to account for shared evolutionary history among herbivore species. We further categorized larval diet breadth based on the phylogenetic structure of utilized host plant genera. Our results indicate that species associated with woody plants are, on average, larger than herb feeders and increase in size with increasing diet breadth. Obligatorily univoltine species are larger than multivoltine species, and attain larger sizes when their larvae occur exclusively in the early season. Furthermore, the adult body size is significantly smaller in species that overwinter in the pupal stage compared to those that overwinter as eggs or caterpillars. In summary, our results indicate that the ecological niche of holometabolous insect herbivores is strongly interrelated with body size at maturity.

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Predicting insect body masses based on linear measurements: a phylogenetic case study on geometrid moths

Araújo Foerster,

Javoiš,

Holm

et al. 2023

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

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Dry body mass (DBM) is perhaps the most biologically informative variable describing body size in invertebrates. Unfortunately, obtaining species-specific indices of DBM is problematic because body mass inevitably changes during the course of the life of an individual. Here, we present a phylogenetically informed analysis of allometric relationships between body size and various linear measurements in the moth family Geometridae, which relies on DBM recorded at a fixed time point of adult life. We demonstrate that all measurements of wing size predict DBM with reasonable accuracy, with the distance between the most distal ends of the two forewings in traditionally mounted moths showing the best performance. Abdomen width provides independent morphometric information and can be used as a proxy of body plan, i.e. a measurement of shape that is not dependent on size. Incorporating abdomen width into the regression models considerably increases their predictive ability. We also show that the allometric relationships are reasonably consistent between the two sexes, between monophyletic clades of Geometridae and between the two geographical regions involved in the study (northern Europe and equatorial Africa). The derived equations thus appear to be general enough to be applied in various studies, from comparative phylogenetic analyses to applied projects monitoring insect biomass.

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A comparative study on insect longevity: tropical moths do not differ from their temperate relatives

Cited by 4 publications

References 77 publications

Fruit‐feeding butterflies depend on adult food for reproduction: Evidence from longitudinal body mass and abundance data

Fruit‐feeding butterflies depend on adult food for reproduction: Evidence from longitudinal body mass and abundance data

How do host plant use and seasonal life cycle relate to insect body size: A case study on European geometrid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

Predicting insect body masses based on linear measurements: a phylogenetic case study on geometrid moths

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