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      Life tables in entomology: A discussion on tables’ parameters and the importance of raw data

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          Abstract

          Life tables are one of the most common tools to describe the biology of insect species and their response to environmental conditions. Although the benefits of life tables are beyond question, we raise some doubts about the completeness of the information reported in life tables. To substantiate these doubts, we consider a case study ( Corcyra cephalonica) for which the raw dataset is available. The data suggest that the Gaussian approximation of the development times which is implied by the average and standard error usually reported in life tables does not describe reliably the actual distribution of the data which can be misleading and hide interesting biological aspects. Furthermore, it can be risky when life table data are used to build models to predict the demographic changes of the population. The present study highlights this aspect by comparing the impulse response generated by the raw data and by its Gaussian approximation based on the mean and the standard error. The conclusions of this paper highlight: i) the importance of adding more information to life tables and, ii) the role of raw data to ensure the completeness of this kind of studies. Given the importance of raw data, we also point out the need for further developments of a standard in the community for sharing and analysing data of life tables experiments.

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          Ecological Aspects of Amphibian Metamorphosis: Nonnormal distributions of competitive ability reflect selection for facultative metamorphosis.

          A synthetic theory of the ecology of amphibian metamorphosis is founded on the observation that the large variation in length of larval period and body size at metamorphosis typical of a particular species of amphibian cannot be directly explained by differences in dates of hatching or egg sizes. It is proposed that as development proceeds, variation in exponential growth coefficients causes a trend from a normal distribution to a skewed distribution of body sizes. The degree of skewing increases and the median of the distribution decreases with increasing initial densities of populations. The relative advantages of the largest members of a cohort may arise from a variety of mechanisms including the production of growth inhibitors, interference competition, and size-selective feeding behavior. These mechanisms result in a nonnormal distribution of competitive ability, a possible source of the density-dependent competition coefficient found in systems with many species (1). In our model the ranges of body sizes and dates of metamorphosis are determined by a minimum body size that must be obtained and a maximum body size that will not be exceeded at metamorphosis. Between these two size thresholds the endocrinological initiation of metamorphosis is expected to be related to the recent growth history of the individual larva. Species that exploit uncertain environments will have a wide range of possible sizes at metamorphosis. Species exploiting relatively certain environments will have a narrower range. The evolution of neoteny and direct development logically follow from the application of these ideas to the ecological context of the evolution of amphibian life histories. Species that live in constant aquatic habitats surrounded by hostile environments (desert ponds, caves, high-altitude lakes) may evolve permanent larvae genetically incapable of metamorphosis. Other populations may evolve a facultative metamorphosis such that populations are a mixture of neotenes and terrestrial adults. Direct development results from selection to escape the competition, predation, and environmental uncertainty characteristic of some aquatic habitats and is usually accompanied by parental care. The relation between our ecological model and the physiological mechanisms that initiate metamorphosis can only be suggested and it remains an open problem for developmental biologists.
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            Reaction kinetics of poikilotherm development.

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              Non-linear regression of biological temperature-dependent rate models based on absolute reaction-rate theory.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: SoftwareRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisition
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                PLOS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                7 March 2024
                2024
                : 19
                : 3
                : e0299598
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Service d’Automatique et d’Analyse des Systèmes, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
                [2 ] Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
                [3 ] Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE, CONICET-UNLP), La Plata, Argentina
                [4 ] Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America
                [5 ] Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America
                [6 ] Functional and Evolutionary Entomology, Gembloux Agro-Bio-Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
                University of Carthage, TUNISIA
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2558-7111
                Article
                PONE-D-23-34793
                10.1371/journal.pone.0299598
                10919640
                38451951
                fee2c71f-b472-4d56-ae67-70cfab861ac0
                © 2024 Rossini et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 23 October 2023
                : 12 February 2024
                Page count
                Figures: 6, Tables: 2, Pages: 23
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100018693, HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme;
                Award ID: 101102281
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002661, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS;
                Award ID: 40003443
                Award Recipient :
                LR is funded by the European Commission under the Grant n. 101102281, Project “PestFinder”, call HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01. Part of this work has been supported by the Fons de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS under the Grant n. 40003443 (“Smart Testing”) and by the Brussels Institute of Advanced Studies (Grant BrIAS2024). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Physiology
                Reproductive Physiology
                Eggs
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Developmental Biology
                Life Cycles
                Larvae
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Developmental Biology
                Life Cycles
                Pupae
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Pest Control
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Zoology
                Entomology
                Insects
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Eukaryota
                Animals
                Invertebrates
                Arthropoda
                Insects
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Zoology
                Animals
                Invertebrates
                Arthropoda
                Insects
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Agriculture
                Pests
                Insect Pests
                Physical Sciences
                Mathematics
                Probability Theory
                Probability Distribution
                Skewness
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Mathematical and Statistical Techniques
                Mathematical Functions
                Transfer Functions
                Custom metadata
                All data utilized in this study, along with the accompanying scripts necessary for complete result reproduction, are openly accessible via the following link: https://github.com/lucaros1190/LifeTablesIssues.

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

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