1st Place: Eating for winter – diet macronutrients affect caterpillar diapause

Monday, November 14, 2022

9:00 AM – 9:12 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 114/115

Presenting Author(s)

CS

Clancy A. Short

Graduate Student
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

Co-Author(s)

IB

Izailda B. santos

PhD student
University of Florida
Jay, Florida
CD

Carrie Deans

University of Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
SB

Spencer Behmer

Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
SP

Silvana Paula-Moraes

PhD Entomology AG- WFREC-JAY
University of Florida
Pace, Florida
Daniel A. Hahn

Professor of Entomology
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

Surviving winter is a severe challenge for many insects. Diapause allows insects to become dormant during harsh seasonal conditions like winter, thus synchronizing their growth, development, and reproduction with favorable seasonal conditions. Diapause may last many months and is often accompanied by the cessation of feeding, representing a substantial nutrient cost. However, many insects live in nutrient limited or risky foraging environments, so may struggle to obtain the nutrients needed for diapause. How might nutrient intake affect an insect's likelihood of diapause? Furthermore, how might an insect's feeding preferences change if it is destined for the resource intensive diapause program? We are investigating these questions in the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, using the geometric framework for nutrition to examine the relative roles of carbohydrate and protein nutrition. Overall, diapause and nutrition are mutually linked. Our experiments lay the groundwork for future studies to test the relative importance of nutrient intake and nutrient stores, or test the extent to which nutritional differences in agricultural crops may delay diapause and affect overwintering survival in the field. Our findings may contribute to IPM recommendations in agriculture landscapes with host plants predicted to cause different diapause incidence and overwintering survival in H. zea.