Scientists fear that adaptation to global warming may cause mating problems for some insect species as it may change their color. At higher temperatures, according to the prevailing theory, insects become lighter, which reduces their chances of reproduction.
For example, a dark-colored ladybug is better able to find a sexual partner in cold weather than its lighter counterpart. Darker males warm up more easily in the early hours, so they can focus on other things before, while other beetles still warm up. It follows from studiesabout which he wrote The Guardian.
“On the one hand, we could rejoice and say to ourselves: How are the insects doing? Responds to climate change. We don’t have to worry about it,” said Mariella Herberstein, a behavioral ecologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. “And then we might wake up the next day and say, Oh shit — they can’t find each other because they’ve lost the really important identifying colors that help them find a mate.”
According to Herberstein, the prevailing theory among scientists is that when the temperature rises, insects largely evolve to produce less of the pigment melanin, which regulates their shade, and become lighter and brighter.
For example, the yellow-colored, bright wings of one species of butterfly (Colias meadii) from the North American mountains fade over time with increasing temperature, a 2016 study found. it will have black wings with red spots instead of red with black spots. The dark spots on the back of the ‘mandeliniek’ also decrease with the warmer spring.
However, according to Herberstein’s team, this trend is not clear-cut. A follow-up study of Colias meadii butterflies, which examined more than 800 butterflies collected for museum specimens between 1953–2013, found that in some areas their pale yellow wings darkened over time. According to a 2018 study, one species of grasshopper turned greener and darker over time as it warmed.
According to the authors of the latest study, this may be because the researchers are working with a limited data set and that most of the little data collected comes from similar studies with similar insects in similar locations. This is probably also because melanin does not only have a heat-related function, but is involved in immunological defense and helps protect against ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
But color is also involved in attracting mates, camouflaging from predators or prey, and allowing one member of a species to easily recognize others – all of which could change as temperatures rise. “If we affect their reproduction, we have a serious impact on the viability of their population,” Herberstein said. “It’s just one of those parts that we have to figure out,” she added. Unraveling this puzzle could play a key role in determining exactly how insects might be able to survive climate change, according to scientists.
Source: vat.pravda.sk
