Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada N6G 1L3.
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
Bull Entomol Res. 2022 Aug;112(4):441-450. doi: 10.1017/S0007485321000791. Epub 2022 Mar 29.
Insects are mass-reared for release for biocontrol including the sterile insect technique. Insects are usually reared at temperatures that maximize the number of animals produced, are chilled for handling and transport, and released into the field, where temperatures may be considerably different to those experienced previously. Insect thermal biology is phenotypically plastic (i.e. flexible), which means that there may exist opportunities to increase the performance of these programmes by modifying the temperature regimes during rearing, handling, and release. Here we synthesize the literature on thermal plasticity in relation to the opportunities to reduce temperature-related damage and increase the performance of released insects. We summarize how and why temperature affects insect biology, and the types of plasticity shown by insects. We specifically identify aspects of the production chain that might lead to mismatches between the thermal acclimation of the insect and the temperatures it is exposed to, and identify ways to harness physiological plasticity to reduce that potential mismatch. We address some of the practical (especially engineering) challenges to implementing some of the best-supported thermal regimes to maximize performance (e.g. fluctuating thermal regimes), and acknowledge that a focus only on thermal performance may lead to unwanted trade-offs with other traits that contribute to the success of the programme. Together, it appears that thermal physiological plasticity is well-enough understood to allow its implementation in release programmes.
昆虫被大量饲养以供用于生物防治，包括利用不育昆虫技术进行释放。通常在最有利于动物繁殖的温度下饲养昆虫，然后进行冷藏处理和运输，再释放到野外，而野外的温度可能与它们之前经历的温度有很大的不同。昆虫热生物学具有表型可塑性（即灵活性），这意味着通过改变饲养、处理和释放过程中的温度条件，可能有机会提高这些项目的性能。在这里，我们综合了与减少与温度相关的损害和提高释放昆虫性能相关的热可塑性文献。我们总结了温度如何以及为何影响昆虫生物学，以及昆虫表现出的可塑性类型。我们特别确定了生产链中可能导致昆虫热适应与其所暴露的温度不匹配的方面，并确定了利用生理可塑性来减少这种潜在不匹配的方法。我们解决了实施一些最佳支持的热区以最大限度地提高性能（例如波动的热区）所面临的一些实际（特别是工程）挑战，并承认仅关注热性能可能会导致与其他有助于项目成功的特征产生不必要的权衡。总的来说，似乎可以很好地理解热生理可塑性，从而可以将其应用于释放项目中。
