Does anybody know two (closely) related insect species with very different developmental times of their eggs?
Hi Maurijn! How "close" these species should be? Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus possess very different embryonic times (Aedes takes twice the time Culex takes to develop). But I'm not sure if they are close enough. Their last common ancestor existed ~ 204 MYA. Another option is to use different species of Aedes, there is also a huge variation within species (I'm being biased towards mosquitoes...) Élio's idea about different Drosophila species sounds great. I guess Bombyx embryos get into diapause depending on environmental cues the mother suffers.
Good luck!
you may find information here: John K. Jackson and Bernard W. Sweeney 1995. Egg and Larval Development Times for 35 Species of Tropical Stream Insects from Costa Rica. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 14(1): 115-130. (http://www.stroudcenter.org/about/pdfs/Jackson_Sweeney_1995c.pdf). its about insects from Costa Rica, but may give an insight about potential species.
Not sure exactly why you ask this question, but some species have egg diapause, e.g. Bombyx mori, and then you will have extreme differences in egg development times.
Hi MAurijn!
What do you mean by closely related? And what difference in time would you consider sufficient to your question? Within drosophila the times are rather different but I am not sure if that would fit your needs...
best,,
élio
OK, let's try to see if "open science" works: I want to look at the immune response of insect eggs. Preliminary data seem to suggest that eggs of species that develop very quickly do not have a very elaborate immune reponse , whereas eggs of species that develop more slowly do. It would be great to compare two species that are not extremely distantly related. Or, indeed, investigate one species that could be induced to develop much slower (without affecting too much the temperature, i.e. activity of pathogens).
Elio's idea of using Drosophila has the advantage of gene sequences and you know how closely those species are related. However certain Bombyx strains, that also have a complete genome, can be induced to go into diapause. Obviously their physiology is different, but it might be an interesting system.
Yes, sounds interesting. What is exactly the cue to make them go into diapause?
Hi Maurijn! How "close" these species should be? Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus possess very different embryonic times (Aedes takes twice the time Culex takes to develop). But I'm not sure if they are close enough. Their last common ancestor existed ~ 204 MYA. Another option is to use different species of Aedes, there is also a huge variation within species (I'm being biased towards mosquitoes...) Élio's idea about different Drosophila species sounds great. I guess Bombyx embryos get into diapause depending on environmental cues the mother suffers.
Good luck!
Hi Maurijn,
sounds like going for Drosophila species should work. Or even populations of the same species. There is for instance extensive variation in development time in D. americana populations between the north and the south. For more information see here http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138758 and http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/4/661.full. Genome sequences are available (soon also for a south population). Not sure though whether these differences in development time are enough for you question.
Cheers,
Nico
Hi Maurijn,
Following Nico's answer, you may also find these two papers interesting: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12400/full (Table 5) and http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004293
Cheers
Dear Maurijn,
Adelphocoris lineatus and Lygus rugulipennis belong to the family, Miridae. The first one overwinters as an egg the second as an adult. Both have two generations in Europe. They are polyphagous and live in similar habitats. The question is how close relationship you need for your investigations. Should the possible model species belong to the same genus?
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