DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10647795
title: The critical thermal limits of Lepidoptera

description: The global teperature has been rising over the past couple hundred years. This rapid change will impact all the species in the world. It is also important to understand how different insects react to these rising temperatures. Insects are ectotherms, meaning that they cannot control their body temperature and therefore their body temperature is determined by the ambient temperature. Therefore the rising global temperature can threaten these species since they are tied to the environmental temperature. This dataset includes 73 different species from Lepidoptera family. The traits that the dataset focuses on are the critical thermal limits (CTLs). CTL points are the points were the individual can no longer be motile on its upper or lower most temperature. By knowing these limits, it will be easier to note the impact of the climate change on these species.

Literature search protocol Google Scholar was used to find relevant papers. The data from the paper was included if it had CTmin and/or CTmax values. If the data was only presented in a figure, the figure was read by an online figure reader (https://apps.automeris.io/wpd/). If multiple values were presented in the paper, the most natural treatment, e.g. if treatment had urban and rural locations, the data for the rural area was chosen, or control values. Ramping rate and acclimation temperatures were also recorded if they were mentioned in the paper.

The used search terms were: - lepidoptera thermal tolerance- lepidoptera critical thermal limits- lepidoptera critical thermal minumum maxima- butterfly critical thermal minumum maxima- butterfly critical thermal limits- papers that had cited C. Nyamukondiwa, J.S. Terblanche (2010)

MetadataLocation accuracy - TRUE (coordinates of the collection site or rearing site given in the paper), ESTIMATE (name of the collection or rearing site given in the paper but no coordinates. Estimate coordinates acquired from Google Maps with the site name)CTMin - The lowest survival temperature in celcius (°C)CTMax - The highest survival temperature in celsius (°C)Ramping rate - how quicly the min/max temperature has been reached from the acclimation temperature. Unit celsius per minute (°C min-1)Acclimation temperature - units in celsius (°C)

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