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Insects
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Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects
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Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Physiology, Reproduction and Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 12486

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Elizabeth Duncan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Interests: phenotypic plasticity; invertebrate developmental biology; epigenetics; gene expression; next-generation sequencing; environmental response; adaptation; genetics; evolution; evolution and development

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

All animals respond to their environment but some can completely change their behaviour, morphology, metabolism and reproduction in response to environmental cues; a phenomenon known as phenotypic plasticity. Although phenotypic plasticity is found throughout the animal kingdom, the best-known examples of phenotypic plasticity are found in insects and include caste-specification in social insects, seasonal colour morphs in butterflies and thermal plasticity in body size and pigmentation in the fruit fly D. melanogaster. This Special Issue will focus on our understanding of the genes underpinning phenotypic plasticity, how phenotypic plasticity evolves and also the adaptive consequences of plasticity, in particular, in response to rapid environmental change. Please contact the Guest Editor, prior to submission, if you are unsure whether your manuscript falls within the aims and scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Elizabeth Duncan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • phenotypic plasticity
  • epigenetics
  • genomics
  • environmentally responsive gene expression
  • adaptation
  • global change
  • evolvability
  • ecology
  • evolution
  • eco-evo-devo
  • phenotype

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 4836 KiB  
Article
The Plastic Larval Body Color of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in Response to the Host Plant Color: The Maternal Effect on Crypsis
by Ai Yoshida, Shintaro Yabu and Joji M. Otaki
Insects 2023, 14(2), 202; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects14020202 - 17 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2497
Abstract
Many lepidopteran larvae show body color polyphenism, and their colors may be cryptic on the host plant leaves. To elucidate the effect of the host plant color on the plastic larval body color, we focused on the lycaenid butterfly Zizeeria maha, which [...] Read more.
Many lepidopteran larvae show body color polyphenism, and their colors may be cryptic on the host plant leaves. To elucidate the effect of the host plant color on the plastic larval body color, we focused on the lycaenid butterfly Zizeeria maha, which shows various larval body colors ranging from green to red, even within a sibling group. We showed that oviposition was normally performed on both green and red leaves, despite a green preference and the fact that the larvae grew equally by consuming either green or red leaves. The number of red larvae decreased from the second instar stage to the fourth instar stage, demonstrating a stage-dependent variation. When the larvae were fed either green or red leaves across multiple generations of the lineages, the red larvae were significantly more abundant in the red leaf lineage than in the green leaf lineage. Moreover, the red-fed siblings showed a significantly higher red larval frequency than the green-fed siblings in the red-leaf lineage but not in the green-leaf lineage. These results suggest that, in this butterfly species, the plastic larval body color for crypsis may be affected not only by the color of the leaves that the larvae consume (single-generation effect) but also by the color of the leaves that their mothers consume (maternal effect), in addition to a stage-dependent color variation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects)
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23 pages, 7463 KiB  
Article
Phenotypic Plasticity of the Mimetic Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio polytes: Color Pattern Modifications and Their Implications in Mimicry Evolution
by Tomoyuki Shimajiri and Joji M. Otaki
Insects 2022, 13(7), 649; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13070649 - 19 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5643
Abstract
Butterfly wing color patterns are sensitive to environmental stress, such as temperature shock, and this phenotypic plasticity plays an important role in color pattern evolution. However, the potential contributions of phenotypic plasticity to mimicry evolution have not been evaluated. Here, we focused on [...] Read more.
Butterfly wing color patterns are sensitive to environmental stress, such as temperature shock, and this phenotypic plasticity plays an important role in color pattern evolution. However, the potential contributions of phenotypic plasticity to mimicry evolution have not been evaluated. Here, we focused on the swallowtail butterfly Papilio polytes, which has nonmimetic and mimetic forms in females, to examine its plastic phenotypes. In the nonmimetic form, medial white spots and submarginal reddish spots in the ventral hindwings were enlarged by cold shock but were mostly reduced in size by heat shock. These temperature-shock-induced color pattern modifications were partly similar to mimetic color patterns, and nonmimetic females were more sensitive than males and mimetic females. Unexpectedly, injection of tungstate, a known modification inducer in nymphalid and lycaenid butterflies, did not induce any modification, but fluorescent brightener 28, another inducer discovered recently, induced unique modifications. These results suggest that phenotypic plasticity in nonmimetic females might have provided a basis of natural selection for mimetic color patterns during evolution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects)
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14 pages, 4527 KiB  
Article
Phenotypic Plasticity of Common Wasps in an Industrially Polluted Environment in Southwestern Finland
by Oluwatobi Badejo, Oksana Skaldina, Sirpa Peräniemi, Victor Carrasco-Navarro and Jouni Sorvari
Insects 2021, 12(10), 888; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12100888 - 30 Sep 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2883
Abstract
Insects vary in the degree of their adaptability to environmental contamination. Determining the responses with phenotypic plasticity in ecologically important species in polluted environments will ease further conservation and control actions. Here, we investigated morphological characteristics such as body size, body mass, and [...] Read more.
Insects vary in the degree of their adaptability to environmental contamination. Determining the responses with phenotypic plasticity in ecologically important species in polluted environments will ease further conservation and control actions. Here, we investigated morphological characteristics such as body size, body mass, and color of the common wasp Vespula vulgaris in an industrially polluted environment, considering different levels of metal pollution, and we studied the localization of contaminants in the guts of wasps. We revealed some differences in morphological characteristics and melanization of wasps collected in habitats with high, moderate, and low levels of pollution. The results indicated that V. vulgaris from highly polluted environments had reduced melanin pigmentation on the face but increased melanin pigmentation on the 2nd tergite of the abdomen. In addition, with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), we found metal particles from the midgut of wasps originating from the polluted environment. Most of the particles were encapsulated with melanin pigment. This finding confirmed that in wasps, ingested metal particles are accumulated in guts and covered by melanin layers. Our data suggest that wasps can tolerate metal contamination but respond phenotypically with modification of their size, coloration, and probably with the directions of the melanin investments (immunity or coloration). Thus, in industrially polluted areas, wasps might probably survive by engaging phenotypic plasticity with no significant or visible impact on the population. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects)
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