Tagesperiodische antagonistische Schwankungen der Blauviolett- und Gelbrot-Empfindlichkeit als Grundlage der photoperiodischen Diapause-Induktion bei Pieris brassicae

Abstract

In Pieris brassicae, diapause is inhibited if long-day conditions are imposed during and immediately after the third molting. The critical daylength is approximately 14 hours. Under short-day conditions with a main light period of 6 or 12 hours’ duration, supplementary light given in the period from 14 to 16 hours after the beginning of the main light period will inhibit diapause. In contrast to this effect of late exposures to light, light given from 1 to 12 hours after the beginning of the main light period promotes diapause. Experiments with extremely long light periods (10—35 hours), but always with a dark period of 10 hours, show that these diurnal fluctuations in quantitative and qualitative responses to light can continue endogenously for several days. Thus, this time-measuring process operates through the mechanism of endogenous diurnal oscillations in just the same way as do photoperiodic reactions in plants. The inhibition of diapause by light in the second half of the diurnal oscillation (under long days or by light interruptions in the dark period) and the promotion by light in the first half (under short days) occur only with light of short wavelengths: ultraviolet, violet, and blue up to about 550 mμ. Yellow and red light act in the opposite fashion, giving diapause inhibition in the first half of the cycle and promotion in the second half. In white light the violet reaction predominates, so that diapause is promoted by short days and inhibited by long days.