THEORETICAL STUDIES OF ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION IN LIFE HISTORY SHCEDULES.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

(1) The evolution of seasonal timing of univoltine insects living on seasonally chaging renewable resources is studied. If competition during feeding larval stages is intense, asynchronous timing of hatching and pupation may evolve. The period in which pupation occur every day tends to be much longer than the period in which hatching occurs. However they may be synchronous if the impact of herbivorous insects on the food plant is small.(2) The evolution of voltinism of insects in seasonal environments is studied. A long growing season. small egg size, and fast growth tends to favor bivoltinism or multivoltinism over univoltinism. If the resource availability has a peak in the begining of the growing season and declines slowly afterwards, then the first generation larbae tends to have a larger pupation size and a shorter feeding period than the second generation, which may explain well-documented size difference between seasonal types.(3) In collaboration with Professor Dan Cohen, Hebrew University, the competitive uptake of nutrients in the medium by microbes or by terrestrial plants is studied, It is a competitive game between plants.(4) Evolutionarily stable timing of emergence of male butterflies in a fluctuating environment is studied in collaboration with Dr. Patsy Haccou, Leiden University. The importance of the role of information available for males in their decision making. A method was developped to infer the uncertainty that males have in their decision making from variances and covariance of emergence data of both sexes over many years.