Northward expansion of the bivoltine life cycle of the cricket over the last four decades

Abstract

Recent climate warming has affected some life‐history traits of insects, including voltinism and body size. The magnitude of changes in these traits may differ latitudinally within a species because of the differing lengths of season available for growth. The present study aims to estimate the change in voltinism of the lawn ground cricket, Polionemobius mikado (Shiraki) (Orthoptera: Trigonidiidae), over the last four decades by comparing the body size between adults collected from a wide range of latitudes in Japan in recent years (2015–2017) and those collected four decades ago (1969–1976). The body size of adults collected in recent years showed a latitudinal saw‐tooth cline, in the same way as body size did four decades ago, and the cline shifted northward over the last four decades: In 2015–2017, the body size decreased slightly with increasing latitude from 31°N to 36°N, and then increased to 40°N, and again decreased from 40°N to 44°N. Comparison of the body size between recent years and four decades ago revealed that the body size has decreased significantly at the middle latitudes (36–40°N), suggesting that the proportion of smaller bivoltine individuals there has increased over the last four decades. The sum of effective temperatures for postdiapause embryonic development at around 36°N in recent years was comparable to that at 31–35°N four decades ago, at which P. mikado populations were bivoltine. Taken together, these findings suggested that the latitudinal range suitable for the bivoltine life cycle of P. mikado has expanded northward over the last four decades because of climate warming. This is the first report that shows that a decrease in body size can be caused by climate warming via an increase in voltinism.

Soundscape of urban-tolerant crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae, Trigonidiidae) in a tropical Southeast Asia city, Singapore

“…Urban cricket populations can have different requirements from populations found in their natural habitats (Fartmann et al 2008). For example, higher temperature owing to urban island heat effects can change voltinism in nemobines (Matsuda et al 2018) as well as their calling properties (Walker 1962;Bennet-Clark 1989;Martin et al 2000). In addition to environmental-driven effects on cricket acoustics, urban crickets need to compete for acoustic space (both frequency and temporal domains) with males of the same and different species to attract conspecific mates.…”

Investigating the Impact of Climate Warming on Phenology of Aphid Pests in China Using Long-Term Historical Data

“…Understanding the long-term impact of climate warming on insect pests is of great significance in both science and application. However, evidence on this issue has still been limited [35][36][37], mainly due to the lack of long-term dataset. The present paper provides another empirical study by collecting nearly 60 years dataset on population dynamics of three notorious aphid pests.…”

“…However, the long-term effects of climate warming on aphid pests are largely unknown due to the lack of long-term data on population monitoring. To conquer this obstacle, historical data from the literature may provide valuable information for understanding this issue [35][36][37]. Therefore, our study collected historical data on the occurrence and population dynamics of three important agricultural pests of aphids, Myzus persicae, Aphis gossypii, and Sitobion avenae.…”

Prey–predator phenological mismatch under climate change

“…In addition, change in voltinism can be associated with modifications of life history traits involved in trophic interactions. For instance, additional generations of the orthopteran Polionemobius mikado has been demonstrated to result in smaller body size for the insect [65]. Such situation may contribute to lower fitness gain in high trophic levels and thus…”