Insect Diapause

Abstract

Our highly seasonal world restricts insect activity to brief portions of the year. This feature necessitates a sophisticated interpretation of seasonal changes and enactment of mechanisms for bringing development to a halt and then reinitiating it when the inimical season is past. The dormant state of diapause serves to bridge the unfavourable seasons, and its timing provides a powerful mechanism for synchronizing insect development. This book explores how seasonal signals are monitored and used by insects to enact specific molecular pathways that generate the diapause phenotype. The broad perspective offered here scales from the ecological to the molecular and thus provides a comprehensive view of this exciting and vibrant research field, offering insights on topics ranging from pest management, evolution, speciation, climate change and disease transmission, to human health, as well as analogies with other forms of invertebrate dormancy and mammalian hibernation. • The first comprehensive reference book available on insect diapause in past 30 years • Offers a single source covering the broad field, from the evolution and ecological aspects of diapause through to the molecular mechanisms that undergird seasonal development of insects • Provides a perspective on how the study of insect diapause can contribute to diverse fields such as insect pest management to issues of human health.