Subject: Overwintering stage

From: Erning Han <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 09:17:09 -0400

Richard wrote:
>
>I believe that most butterflies and moths overwinter as adults, and find
>winter "homes" in bushes, trees, under leaves, in cracks and crevasses
>or in leaf litter ...

This is NOT true. I would like to quote what Danks (1987) wrote in his book
"insect dormancy: an ecological perspective" in regard to overwintering
stages of lepidoptera species (p.63):

"Massaki pointed out that the predominant stages for summer and winter
diapause often were similar. ... He also noted some marked differences: for
example, in Lepidoptera, pupae enter diapause frequently, but in addition
far more larvae overwinter, and far more adults aestivate, than vice versa
..."

In the table of the same page, Danks presented a summary of the
distribution of dormant stages in lepidoptera species (total of 110) that
have been studied for photoperiodic or other control of diapause. The
percentage of species in diapause at a specific stage is listed as follows:
Eggs (3%) Larvae (45%) Pupae (48%) Adult (4%).

Hope this information is helpful.

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Erning Han
CRBF
Pav. C.-E. Marchand            Local: 2163
Universite Laval               Tel: (418)656-2131 Poste 8129
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CANADA                         e-mail: [email-masked]
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