Observations placeholder
Hugh Danks – Canadian Museum of Nature - The Diapause
Identifier
020346
Type of Spiritual Experience
None
Background
Diapause is not only about surviving a specific period of seasonal change but also about the synchronisation of entire life cycles to seasonal change in different environments
A description of the experience
Hugh Danks – Canadian Museum of Nature 2005
Each individual follows a particular life-cycle pathway by making successive developmental decisions, such as whether or not to enter diapause, whether or not to become quiescent, and whether to develop slowly or rapidly.
Many alternative pathways are possible when there are multiple decision points through the life cycle; each individual can then optimise its chance of survival by adjusting the duration of immature development; the time of metamorphosis to the adult or the timing of reproduction according to its genetic programme and especially in response to ongoing environmental information.
Of course, the response to a given environment can change through the life cycle, so that short photo periods might have one effect in early instars and the opposite effect in late instars