Induction of larval diapause in the blowfly, Calliphora vicina R.-D. (Diptera, Calliphoridae) under field and laboratory conditions

Abstract

Field experiments conducted in the environs of St. Petersburg (Russia) with a local population of Calliphora vicina showed that induction of larval diapause under natural conditions was significantly dependent on day lengths and temperature. The maternal photoperiodic response had a distinct threshold: the first diapausing larvae hatched from the eggs laid in the middle of August when the day length was 16 h; at shorter photoperiods, the fraction of diapausing larvae depended only on temperature. At the mean temperature of 16°C, larval diapause was rarely recorded; at 12–13°C, about 50% of the larvae entered diapause; at 7–9°C, nearly all the larvae entered diapause. These results of the field experiments agree well with the parameters of photoperiodic and thermal responses studied in the laboratory at constant temperatures and photoperiods.