Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

I examined the effect of heterogeneity in the thermal environment on the life history of the cricket Allonemobius fasciatus. Variation in the life cycle was the result of a mixture of phenotypic plasticity and genetic differentiation in phenology-related traits along a latitudinal cline in growing season. Females from a partially bivoltine population have a conditional life history because they can adjust the proportion of diapause eggs in accordance with the likelihood that a second generation will grow and reproduce before winter. The thermal environment is not variable enough to result in the evolution of a marked bet hedging response, as is predicted by theory. A quantitative genetic analysis of the diapause reaction norm revealed significant heritabilities as well as correlations with other traits that could be related to common physiological mechanisms.

Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Zoology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

No description available.