EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF PERIODICAL INSECTS

To be periodical, a species must have a fixed life cycle length and adults must appear synchronously, reproduce only once, and die. The consequence of this life history is that, at a given location, adults of a periodical species will be absent or rare in some years and abundant in others. The relative scarcity of periodical insect species suggests that periodicity does not evolve easily. The major obstacle to its evolution is selection favoring life cycles in which the offspring of any given female appear over a two- or three-year period. Chance events which disrupt this 'bet-hedging' strategy set the stage for periodicity. Mathematical models predict that, given certain initial conditions, intraspecific competition and predation favor its development. Recent studies suggest that periodicity is rarely perfect but that it can persist in the face of limited gene flow through time.