Authors: Sabine Radmacher Erhard Strohm
Publish Date: 2011/08/11
Volume: 42, Issue: 6, Pages: 711-720
Abstract
Since the temperature during development may affect growth and fitness in insects climate change might affect important life history traits of solitary bees We investigated the impact of three fluctuating and three constant temperature regimes on prepupal weight mortality and development time of Osmia bicornis Prepupal weight decreased with increasing temperature but not as strong under fluctuating conditions Adult mortality increased in the warm treatments Fluctuating versus constant temperatures accelerated development in the most stages and temperature regimes The duration of almost all developmental phases decreased with increasing temperature except for the prepupal phase that was prolonged in the warm treatments The differences in thermal responses to fluctuating vs constant temperatures illustrated the importance of fluctuating temperatures in studies investigating potential consequences of climate change for insects including pollinators
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