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Vol. 48 No. 3, 2009
Photoperiodic Regulation of Reproductive Activity in Summer-
and Autumn-Morph Butterflies of Polygonia
c-aureum L.
Keijiro
Fujita1, Moeko Inoue2, Masao Watanabe1, Abu Taher Md. Fayezul Islam1,3,
Reza Md. Shahjahan3,4, Katsuhiko Endo1, and Akira Yamanaka1,2,*
1Department
of Natural Symbiosis Science, Graduate School of Science and
Engineering, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8512, Japan
2Department of Applied Molecular Bioscience, Graduate
School of Medicine, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8512, Japan
3Institute of Food and Radiation Biology, AERE, Savar,
GPO Box 3787, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
4Department of Zoology, Dhaka University, Dhaka 1000,
Bangladesh
Keijiro
Fujita, Moeko Inoue, Masao Watanabe, Abu Taher Md. Fayezul Islam, Reza
Md. Shahjahan, Katsuhiko Endo, and Akira Yamanaka (2009) The
Asian comma butterfly Polygonia
c-aureum has seasonal morphs of summer- and autumn-types, the
development of which is determined by photoperiod and temperature
during larval stages in close relation to the determination of adult
reproductive diapause. In this paper, we investigated how the
period of reproductive diapause changes in response to photoperiodic
conditions available after adult emergence by determining ovarian
development in female butterflies of each morph-type. Females of
autumn-morph types did not produce eggs for about 80 d under short-day
conditions at 20°C. When they were transferred to long-day
conditions at 20°C after emergence, however, these females began to
accumulate yolk within 8 d, and in ovaries about 15 d later, the female
possessed more than 3 eggs in each ovariole, totaling > 24
eggs. When females of the summer-morph type were transferred to
short-day conditions at 20°C after emergence, their ovarian maturation
was delayed and took about twice as long compared to that of females
continuously exposed to long-day conditions. The maintenance of
adult diapause- or non-diapause-type reproductive activity thus
respectively requires short- or long-day conditions, suggesting that P. c-aureum is also responsive to
photoperiod during its adult stages.
Key words: Egg
production, Nymphalid butterfly, Photoperiod, Reproductive diapause,
Temperature.
*Correspondence: Tel: 81-83-9335720. Fax:
81-83-9335720. E-mail:yamanaka@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
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