Sexual Precocity of the Male Flour Beetle, Tribolium castaneum Herbst, and the Influence of Temperatures on Reproduction during Early Adult Life

Abstract

AbstractIn the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum single-pair matings of different age combinations, young (1 day old) and old (10 days old) maintained for two weeks at 29 ± 2 °C. and 70% relative humidity showed that males matured sexually on the second day of adult life; females matured on the fourth. Between days 7 and 14, regardless of age, productivity was expressed as a single straight line with zero slope and an intercept of 16.4.Young x young pairs maintained at 25, 29 and 32 °C. had fertilities peculiar to the temperature. The higher the temperature, the earlier reproduction began and the greater the number of F1 adults per day during the two-week experimental period.