We replicated the effect of summer heat on blueberry maggot pupae by exposing samples to high temperatures for different periods of time. Heat exposure caused distinct effects according to the physiological age of pupae. Exposure to heat greatly accelerated development of young pupae, but development was always arrested at a threshold at 50-60 days from emergence, regardless of the length of exposure. Only pupae at 40 or less days to emergence were able to acclimate when exposed to heat. Pupae also needed ~10 days at 20 °C to acclimate to heat, after a period of heat induced quiescence. Quiescence in the blueberry maggot seems to occur in response to high temperature, but only at a particular stage of pupal development, which we consider to be the transition between diapause and morphogenesis.
Species 1: Diptera Tephritidae Rhagoletis mendax (blueberry maggot)
Keywords: diapause, quiescence
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