Abstract

JapaneseTetranychus urticae is highly variable in diapause traits both among populations from different localities and host plants, as well as within populations. Many southern populations have almost lost their diapause capacity, and those from central Japan (34–37°N) are a mixture of diapausing (DP) and non-diapausing (ND) individuals. A simple mathematical model was constructed for analyzing the conditions under which the ND is more favourable than the DP in a system consisting of two different microhabitats: L, in which winter is lethal for the ND, and O, in which some of the ND can overwinter successfully. The model suggests that if winter mortality is not very high for the ND, and the annual reproductive rate of the ND is higher than that of the DP in microhabitat L, then a higher dispersal rate of the mites from L to O, and an equal number of patches of the two microhabitats will favour the ND more than the DP.

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