Eur. J. Entomol. 122: 137-140, 2025 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2025.016

How long do diapause pupae of Antheraea pernyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) store photoperiodic information?Original article

Katsuhiko SAKAMOTO ORCID...1, 2, Yuichi EGI ORCID...1
1 Biosignal Research Center, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan; e-mails: ksakamoto@diamond.kobe-u.ac.jp, yuchin122@gmail.com
2 Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

Pupal diapause in the Chinese oak silkmoth (Antheraea pernyi) is maintained under short-day (SD) photoperiods but is terminated when pupae are exposed to long-day (LD) photoperiods for a specific number of days. This process suggests that pupae can count or retain memory of the number of LD days experienced. In this study, we investigated how long diapause pupae retain photoperiodic information acquired during LD exposure. Diapause pupae were first reared under SD conditions and then exposed to LD for 8 days - an insufficient duration to terminate diapause. Following this, the pupae were placed back under SD for 7, 14, or 21 days, and subsequently returned to LD to induce adult eclosion. Using the final transfer to LD as a reference point, we found that pupae exposed to SD for 7 or 14 days reached adulthood significantly earlier than control pupae that had not previously experienced LD. However, no significant difference in eclosion timing was observed between the 21-day SD group and the control group. These results suggest that photoperiodic information acquired during the 8-day LD exposure gradually decayed under SD conditions and was lost between 14 and 21 days after the transfer from LD to SD. Complete erasure of photoperiodic information under SD appeared to require approximately twice the duration of the initial LD exposure.

Keywords: Silkmoth, pupal diapause termination, photoperiod

Received: March 30, 2025; Revised: June 23, 2025; Accepted: June 23, 2025; Published online: July 9, 2025  Show citation

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SAKAMOTO, K., & EGI, Y. (2025). How long do diapause pupae of Antheraea pernyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) store photoperiodic information? EJE, 122, Article 137-140. https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2025.016
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