The impact of daily temperature fluctuations on arthropod life history parameters is inadequately studied compared with the ample amount of research that has been conducted on the effects of constant temperatures. Fluctuating temperatures are likely to be more realistic, as they are ecologically more similar to what these arthropods experience in nature. Here, we compared the impact of 11 constant temperatures that ranged from 10 to 35 °C with fluctuating temperatures with the same corresponding mean temperature and an amplitude of 10 °C between high (12 h) and low (12 h) temperatures on the development and life history parameters of Tetranychus urticae under continuous light conditions. No eggs hatched at constant 10 °C, whereas 81.5% of eggs successfully completed development at fluctuating 10 °C (15/5 °C). Egg-to-female adult development was faster under fluctuating temperatures from 12.5 to 27.5 °C than under constant temperatures, whereas the opposite trend was observed at >30 °C. The lower thermal thresholds (T) were 11.63 and 8.63 °C, and thermal constants (K) were 127.81 and 150.69 degree-days for egg-to-female adults at constant and fluctuating temperatures, respectively. The numbers of oviposition days were significantly higher at fluctuating 15 °C than at the corresponding constant temperature, whereas the opposite trend was observed from 20 to 30 °C. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) was higher at fluctuating than at constant 15 °C. The net reproductive rate (R ) was also higher at fluctuating than at constant 15 and 35 °C, but showed an opposite trend at 20 and 25 °C. We conclude that fluctuating temperatures should be considered to accurately predict spider mite population dynamics in nature.

Previous studies on the spider mite Eotetranychus smithi Pritchard & Baker have shown that diapause in eggs is induced by low temperature alone and that females developed at ≤ 17.5 °C laid diapause eggs, regardless of the photoperiod. In this study, diapause eggs were kept at 5 °C and a photoperiod of 16L:8D for 0-120 days and then maintained at 25 °C to know the effect of chilling on diapause termination. Diapause eggs mostly hatched when they were maintained at 25 °C after chilling for 30-90 days at 5 °C, which suggests that diapause termination is favored by low temperatures. To clarify the hatching conditions after diapause termination, diapause eggs kept at 5 °C for 45 days were subsequently maintained at various constant temperatures (from 15 to 25 °C) under a long-day photoperiod (16L:8D). The hatchability at all temperatures tested was high (> 90%) and did not significantly differ among the high temperatures. Duration of embryonic development was shorter with increasing warming temperature after chilling. The lower thermal threshold (t) and thermal constant (k) for post-diapause egg development were 10.5 °C and 76.9 degree-days, respectively. Females, which developed from diapause eggs that were chilled at 5 °C for 45 days and then maintained at 15 °C, laid only non-diapause eggs, which indicates that they were prevented from re-entering diapause even under diapause-inducing conditions (15 °C). Thus, temperature is the main factor to control diapause termination and post-diapause development, which has also been found for other spider mites that enter diapause at the egg stage.

Tetranychus urticae Koch and T. kanzawai Kishida enter facultative diapause in response to short-day photoperiods. To determine the effect of various colors of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic lightemitting diodes (OLEDs) on diapause induction, both species were reared under different photoperiods at 18°C and 2.0 W m -2 light intensity, in which photon flux density (PFD) was 7.9-11.0 µmol m −2 s −1 depending on light quality. Under blue, green, and white LEDs, critical photoperiods were ca. 13.5:10.5 h L: D for T. urticae and ca. 12.5: 11.5 h L: D for T. kanzawai, but no diapause was induced in either species under red LEDs. Under blue, green, orange, and white OLEDs, the critical light phases were ca. 13.3-13.5 h for T. urticae and ca. 12.5 h for T. kanzawai. The inhibitory effects of the duration, quality, and intensity of scotophase-interrupting lights on diapause induction in both species were tested under an 8:16 h L: D photoperiod. In T. urticae females, diapause induction was prevented by interrupting the scotophase with 1 h of light from all colors of LEDs or OLEDs except red LEDs. However, in T. kanzawai females, diapause was fully induced with 1-h scotophase interruption of all light colors and types, even when the PFD was as high as 20 µmol m −2 s −1 . Interrupting the scotophase with 3 h of 20 µmol m −2 s −1 light from blue, green, and white LEDs, and from blue, green, orange, and white OLEDs completely inhibited diapause induction in both species. When interrupting the dark phase with 3 h of light at the lowest intensity tested (0.2 µmol m −2 s −1 ), blue and green inhibited diapause induction in T. urticae, whereas only blue light inhibited diapause induction in T. kanzawai. Therefore, blue LED and OLED performed best to inhibit diapause of T. urticae and T. kanzawai at 3-h scotophase interruption even at low light intensity.

Facultative diapause of Eotetranychus smithi appears to occur at the egg stage and is induced by temperatures ≤17.5 °C, independent of photoperiod. However, the effect of thermoperiod on the induction of diapause remains unclear. To answer this question, we exposed female E. smithi to various thermoperiods under constant light conditions. First, we found that the deposition order of eggs affected the incidence of diapause: the first eggs (exclusively males) tended to avert diapause compared with the second and third eggs (most of them are females), possibly because of the sex of the eggs. Next, the incidence of diapause of the second eggs decreased with shortening of the cryophase, which was associated with an increase of the average temperature, and it showed clear long‐day‐type thermoperiodic response curves. However, this species does not sense the ratio of day (thermophase) to night (cryophase) of a given thermoperiod. Short thermoperiods did not increase the incidence of diapause, but rather precluded the entry into diapause. We detected no sign of the involvement of the circadian system in diapause induction in the thermoperiodic Nanda–Hamner protocol. We conclude that diapause induction of E. smithi does not involve the circadian system, and thus does not show thermoperiodism. Diapause induction under the various thermoperiodic conditions tested in the present study appears to be derived from the temperature itself. E. smithi is an exceptional species that relies on temperature alone to induce diapause.

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