Heat limits scale with metabolism in ectothermic animals.

Ectotherms given time to acclimate to warmer environments, habitats or experimental treatments tend to tolerate higher maximum temperatures, but only slightly higher. This means warmer acclimated organisms live closer to their physiological temperature limits (their 'critical temperatures'). The reason for this modest-and often highly variable-plasticity of heat limits is debated but raises concerns for resilience to future climate warming.

Growth, development, and life history of a mass-reared edible insect, Gryllodes sigillatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae).

Edible insects offer a viable alternative protein source to help meet the protein demands of a growing population. Optimizing insect mass-rearing for food and feed production depends on an understanding of insect life history. However, supporting data on growth, development, and reproduction from hatch to adulthood is often not available for many farmed insects, such as the decorated cricket (Gryllodes sigillatus Walk.

Temperature-dependence of life history in an edible cricket: Implications for optimising mass-rearing.

Optimisation of life history and organismal performance underlies success in insect mass-rearing. Rearing schedules, resource use and production yield depend on many aspects of insect fitness and performance within and across generations, such as growth, development, longevity, and fecundity, which are all temperature dependent. Despite this general understanding, we often lack species-specific information needed to make informed decisions about manipulating rearing temperatures to optimise insect growth and development.

Parthenogenesis without costs in a grasshopper with hybrid origins.

The rarity of parthenogenetic species is typically attributed to the reduced genetic variability that accompanies the absence of sex, yet natural parthenogens can be surprisingly successful. Ecological success is often proposed to derive from hybridization through enhanced genetic diversity from repetitive origins or enhanced phenotypic breadth from heterosis. Here, we tested and rejected both hypotheses in a classic parthenogen, the diploid grasshopper .

Best practices for building and curating databases for comparative analyses.

Comparative analyses have a long history of macro-ecological and -evolutionary approaches to understand structure, function, mechanism and constraint. As the pace of science accelerates, there is ever-increasing access to diverse types of data and open access databases that are enabling and inspiring new research. Whether conducting a species-level trait-based analysis or a formal meta-analysis of study effect sizes, comparative approaches share a common reliance on reliable, carefully curated databases.

Linking thermal adaptation and life-history theory explains latitudinal patterns of voltinism.

Insect life cycles are adapted to a seasonal climate by expressing alternative voltinism phenotypes-the number of generations in a year. Variation in voltinism phenotypes along latitudinal gradients may be generated by developmental traits at critical life stages, such as eggs. Both voltinism and egg development are thermally determined traits, yet independently derived models of voltinism and thermal adaptation refer to the evolution of dormancy and thermal sensitivity of development rate, respectively, as independent influences on life history.

Summer egg diapause in a matchstick grasshopper synchronizes the life cycle and buffers thermal extremes.

The phenological response is among the most important traits affecting a species' sensitivity to climate. In insects, strongly seasonal environments often select for a univoltine life cycle such that one seasonal extreme is avoided as an inactive stage. Through understanding the underlying mechanisms for univoltinism, and the consequences of its failure, we can better predict insect responses to climate change.

Mechanistic models for predicting insect responses to climate change.

Mechanistic models of the impacts of climate change on insects can be seen as very specific hypotheses about the connections between microclimate, ecophysiology and vital rates. These models must adequately capture stage-specific responses, carry-over effects between successive stages, and the evolutionary potential of the functional traits involved in complex insect life-cycles. Here we highlight key considerations for current approaches to mechanistic modelling of insect responses to climate change.