Seasonal responses and their geographic variation in Chrysopa downesi: ecophysiological and evolutionary considerations

Abstract

A comparison of Chrysopa downesi strains from Montana and from New York indicates that they share several characteristics in their seasonal cycles: (1) a short-day – long-day requirement for diapause prevention, (2) dark green adult coloration all year round, (3) relatively high t values (lower thermal thresholds for development), and (4) sensitivity to photoperiod during the nondiapause preoviposition period.Responsiveness to prey differs between the two strains. Prey presence very slightly reduces diapause incidence and greatly shortens the nondiapause preoviposition period in the strain from Montana, whereas prey presence has little or no influence on the strain from the northeastern United States. The strains also differ in their ability to terminate diapause spontaneously; unlike the northeastern strain, a proportion of the northwestern strain ends diapause without an overt, external stimulus.The two populations of C. downesi thus share the two characteristics that are basic to the model of C. downesi's sympatric speciation from an ancestor like C. carnea. In contrast, the differences between the two populations in their responsiveness to prey presence parallels the geographic variation in C. carnea. We propose two alternate pathways (polyphyletic and monophyletic) for the evolution of the seasonal responses of the two geographic populations.