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Insects
Special Issues
Insect Adaptation to Changing Environment: From Behavior to Molecular Mechanisms
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Insect Adaptation to Changing Environment: From Behavior to Molecular Mechanisms

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 3644

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jesper G. Sørensen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Aarhus Universitet, Aarhus, Denmark
Interests: thermal acclimation capacity; fluctuating temperatures; heat shock proteins; thermal preference; thermal eco-physiology; experimental evolution
Prof. Dr. Torsten Nygaard Kristensen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Interests: conservation biology; quantitative and population genetics; ecophysiology; thermal adaptation; evolutionary biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Insects and other small ectotherms are, in addition to changes imposed by global climate change, constantly faced by variable environmental conditions that change within timescales that vary from within days to across seasons and years. While the intricate adaptive responses and adaptations to changing environmental conditions have been intensively studied, numerous outstanding questions remain. These include—but are not restricted to—how to measure adaptation and adaptive responses, which molecular mechanisms and genetic pathways are involved, the type and role of behavior, the use of micro-climates, trade-offs between fitness components, genetic variation and evolutionary potential, and changes in the distribution and abundance of insects in accordance with environmental change.

More than one million species of insects have been described, and this large group has immense importance for ecosystem functioning. Studying the responses and adaptation of insects to environmental change is crucial for understanding the fundamental evolutionary processes impacted by these changes and for predicting future insect species distributions. Insects are often overlooked when referring to the biodiversity crisis, and we argue that it is of crucial importance to understand how, where, and why insects are affected by environmental changes, as well as which mechanisms are vital for insects in order for them to accommodate to such changes.

We seek to compile a Special Issue with high-quality original submissions and reviews that address and discuss main outstanding questions within the topic of Insect Adaptation to Environmental Changes.

Prof. Dr. Jesper G. Sørensen
Prof. Dr. Torsten Nygaard Kristensen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • next generation SDMs
  • ecologically relevant measures of responses to environmental stress
  • irreversible and reversible damage caused by environmental stress
  • molecular mechanisms important for adaptation
  • beneficial and detrimental phenotypic plasticity induced by changing environments
  • trade-offs
  • genetic variation and evolutionary potential

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2537 KiB  
Article
Pupal and Adult Experience Affect Adult Response to Food Odour Components in the Flower-Visiting Butterfly Tirumala limniace
by Chengzhe Li, Hua Wang, Fangyuan Bian, Jun Yao, Lei Shi and Xiaoming Chen
Insects 2024, 15(4), 231; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15040231 - 27 Mar 2024
Viewed by 699
Abstract
Butterflies have the ability to learn to associate olfactory information with abundant food sources during foraging. How the co-occurrence of both food and food odours affects the learning behaviour of adults and whether butterflies perceive the odour of their surroundings and develop a [...] Read more.
Butterflies have the ability to learn to associate olfactory information with abundant food sources during foraging. How the co-occurrence of both food and food odours affects the learning behaviour of adults and whether butterflies perceive the odour of their surroundings and develop a preference for that odour during the pupal stage have rarely been tested. We examined the effect of experience with food odour components (α-pinene and ethyl acetate) during the pupal and adult stages on the foraging behaviour of the flower-visiting butterfly Tirumala limniace. We found that α-pinene exposure during the pupal stage changed the foraging preference of newly emerged adults. T. limniace exhibits olfactory learning in the adult stage, and adult learning may influence their previous pupal memory. Moreover, adults’ odour preference did not continue to increase over multiple training times. The learning ability of adults for floral odours (α-pinene) was greater than that for non-floral odours (ethyl acetate). In contrast to previous studies, we found that males learned odours more efficiently than females did. This could be attributed to differences in antennal sensilla, affecting sensitivity to compounds and nectar demand between males and females. Our study provides further insight into how olfactory learning helps flower-visiting butterflies use food odours to forage better. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insect Adaptation to Changing Environment: From Behavior to Molecular Mechanisms)
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12 pages, 3183 KiB  
Article
Plasticity of Life-History Traits and Adult Fitness of Fall Webworm in Relation to Climate Change
by Kailu Wang, Mingxuan Xu and Lvquan Zhao
Insects 2024, 15(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15010024 - 2 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1114
Abstract
Temperature is an important environmental factor influencing the life-history traits of ectotherms. This study investigated the effects of larval-rearing temperature (21, 23, 25, and 27 °C) on the life-history traits and adult fitness of the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea, an economically important [...] Read more.
Temperature is an important environmental factor influencing the life-history traits of ectotherms. This study investigated the effects of larval-rearing temperature (21, 23, 25, and 27 °C) on the life-history traits and adult fitness of the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea, an economically important invasive pest of China. With the increase in temperature during the larval stage, the larval developmental duration was significantly shortened, and the body mass was significantly increased, as was that of the body mass and size of pupae. The carbohydrate and lipid content of pupae significantly decreased with increasing larval-rearing temperature, whereas the protein content significantly increased. Adult body size and egg production increased significantly with increasing larval-rearing temperature, whereas there was no significant difference in egg diameter. These results indicate that H. cunea demonstrates life-history traits plasticity. In addition, the increase in fecundity would maintain a stable population size of H. cunea under higher temperatures. Such characteristics could enable H. cunea to spread to the more southern, warmer areas of China, posing an increased risk to the forestry industry in these regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insect Adaptation to Changing Environment: From Behavior to Molecular Mechanisms)
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13 pages, 6257 KiB  
Article
Relationship between Nest and Body Temperature and Microclimate in the Paper Wasp Polistes dominula
by Helmut Kovac, Julia Magdalena Nagy, Helmut Käfer and Anton Stabentheiner
Insects 2023, 14(11), 886; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects14110886 - 16 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1232
Abstract
The paper wasp Polistes dominula is a thermophilic species originating from the Mediterranean climate, but is now widely spread in Europe. They live in quite differing habitats; and as synanthropic species, they have been established in human settlement areas. They build a single [...] Read more.
The paper wasp Polistes dominula is a thermophilic species originating from the Mediterranean climate, but is now widely spread in Europe. They live in quite differing habitats; and as synanthropic species, they have been established in human settlement areas. They build a single small comb at protected places with a favorable microclimate. We measured the temperature of the wasps, the nests and their environment at typical nesting sides in Austria (Europe) in the temperate climate, in order to reveal relationships between nest and body temperature and the habitats’ microclimate. The temperatures of the comb and of the wasps’ body were in a wide range (~20–37 °C) above the ambient air temperature at the nest. This is an advantage as higher temperatures accelerate the development speed of the brood. However, the mean comb temperature did not exceed approximately 38.6 °C. This was managed by cooling efforts of the adult wasps. The ambient air temperature near the nest (~1–2 cm) was always clearly elevated above the ambient air temperature at a local standard weather station in the habitat. A comparison with climate-model-generated macroclimate data revealed the necessity of measuring microclimate data for a reliable description of the insects’ thermal environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insect Adaptation to Changing Environment: From Behavior to Molecular Mechanisms)
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