DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10647973
title: Thermal tolerance of insects

description: This dataset contains data on the thermal tolerance breadth of some insect species, the critical maximum data, the critical minimum data, as well as the latitude and longitude of sampling, and the time of the study. Temperature is one of the most important factors affecting the reproduction and geographical distribution of organisms. Insects are metazoans, and metazoans are significantly affected by changes in temperature. Thermal tolerance usually refers to the range of temperatures in which an organism can survive. With the change of global temperature, the studies on thermal tolerance of metazoans, such as bees, flies and ants, have gradually increased in recent years. Therefore, this dataset collates the thermal tolerance breadth (critical maximum data minus critical minimum data) of insects.

 

This dataset was searched on 11 February 2024 by Buke Zhang, School of Biology, University of Aberdeen. A search was performed in Google Scholar using the search terms insects, thermal tolerance, and insect thermal tolerance. The retrieved literatures were filtered to study insect thermal tolerance, which in turn was filtered to literatures that provided critical maximum data, critical minimum data, and/or thermal tolerance breadth. Finally the raw data provided in the literatures were used for calculations and collation.

 

In the dataset,

Species: a binomial name for insect species.

Accepted species name: The accepted species name as searched on the GIBF website. \ means the corresponding accepted species name was not found.

Thermal tolerance breadth:Critical maximum data minus critical minimum data. This data is calculated using critical maximum data minus critical minimum data if it is not provided in the original literature. - means that CTmax or CTmin data are missing and could not be calculated.

CTmin:Critical minimum data. * means that no data were provided in the original literature.

CTmax:Critical maximum data. * means that no data were provided in the original literature.

Latitude and longitude: sampling locations provided in the literature. \ means that no data were provided in the original literature.

Year of study: it was obtained from the data provided in the literature and when the literature was published. \ means that no data were provided in the original literature.

 

Reference list

Bishop, T.R., Robertson, M.P., Van Rensburg, B.J. and Parr, C.L. (2016). Coping with the cold: minimum temperatures and thermal tolerances dominate the ecology of mountain ants. Ecological Entomology, 42(2), pp.105–114. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12364.

Hoffmann, A.A., Chown, S.L. and Clusella-Trullas, S. (2012). Upper thermal limits in terrestrial ectotherms: how constrained are they? Functional Ecology, 27(4), pp.934–949. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.02036.x.

Jaramillo, J., Chabi-Olaye, A., Kamonjo, C., Jaramillo, A., Vega, F.E., Poehling, H.-M. and Borgemeister, C. (2009). Thermal Tolerance of the Coffee Berry Borer Hypothenemus hampei: Predictions of Climate Change Impact on a Tropical Insect Pest. PLoS ONE, 4(8), p.e6487. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006487.

Käfer, H., Kovac, H., Simov, N., Battisti, A., Erregger, B., Schmidt, A.K.D. and Stabentheiner, A. (2020). Temperature Tolerance and Thermal Environment of European Seed Bugs. Insects, 11(3), p.197. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11030197.

Lancaster, L.T. (2016). Widespread range expansions shape latitudinal variation in insect thermal limits. Nature Climate Change, 6(6), pp.618–621. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2945.

Preston, D.B. and Johnson, S.G. (2020). Generalist grasshoppers from thermally variable sites do not have higher thermal tolerance than grasshoppers from thermally stable sites - A study of five populations. Journal of Thermal Biology, 88, p.102527. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2020.102527.

Stevens, M.M., Jackson, S., Bester, S.A., Terblanche, J.S. and Chown, S.L. (2010). Oxygen limitation and thermal tolerance in two terrestrial arthropod species. Journal of Experimental Biology, 213(13), pp.2209–2218. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.040170.