Influence of maternal age on incidence of pupal diapause in the flesh fly, Sarcophaga bullata

ABSTRACT. Females of the flesh fly, Sarcophaga bullata Parker, produce an increasingly higher number of diapausing progeny in successive broods. Though a maternal effect completely eliminates the capacity for diapause in the first brood of females with an embryonic and larval history of short day, diapause is restored at low levels in later broods. Exposure to long daylength at the onset of adult life does not alter the diapause response of later broods, thus suggesting that the age effect cannot be modified by daylength manipulation. The age response implies that changes in maternal physiology exert an important regulatory control on the diapause fate of the pupa.