Eur. J. Entomol. 119: 69-76, 2022 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2022.007

Time measurement in insect photoperiodism: The role of photophase duration and light intensityIvo Hodek special issueReview

David SAUNDERS
21 Leadervale Road, Edinburgh EH16 6PB, Scotland, United Kingdom; e-mail: david59.saunders@mypostoffice.co.uk

The initial stages of diapause induction - as summer gives way to autumn - involve a process of time measurement in which the duration of daylength (or nightlength) is determined by a photoperiodic 'clock' based upon the circadian system. In many insects so far examined, a photophase of sufficient duration and illuminance resets a photoperiodic oscillator to a constant phase equivalent to the beginning of the 'subjective night' (Circadian time, CT 12 h) whereupon it proceeds to measure nightlength in a clock of the external coincidence type. A possible exception may be found in the linden bug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, which - in laboratory studies using relatively low light intensity - suggests that daylength is measured rather than the night. Earlier studies of photoperiodic responses (pupal diapause induction) in the flesh fly Sarcophaga argyrostoma, however, showed that 'weak' or short light pulses giving rise to Type 1 phase response curves could be converted by increasing light intensity to Type 0 responses that phase set the oscillation to the beginning of the subjective night (CT 12 h) whereupon it could begin to measure the night. Based upon these data it is therefore suggested that the photoperiodic clock in P. apterus might also measure nightlength if the bugs were exposed to photophases of higher irradiance simulating daytime exposure to the light intensity experienced by these diurnally active insects in their natural environment.

Keywords: Diapause, Pyrrhocoris apterus, day- or nightlength measurement

Received: December 5, 2021; Revised: January 13, 2022; Accepted: January 13, 2022; Published online: January 19, 2022  Show citation

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SAUNDERS, D. (2022). Time measurement in insect photoperiodism: The role of photophase duration and light intensity. EJE, 119, Article 69-76. https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2022.007

This paper was contributed to a virtual special issue in memory of Ivo Hodek, a long-time editor of the European Journal of Entomo­logy, who died on June 11, 2021, shortly after his ninetieth birthday.

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