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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Macrolepidoptera (Insecta: Lepidoptera) Indicator of Climate Changes

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Lately, it has become increasingly clear that global warming has a significant impact on a broad range of organisms, regardless of their ecological and geographical spread. Temperature is one of the most important abiotic factors that determine the spatiotemporal dynamics of structural and functional parameters of populations of Lepidoptera and influencing production and survival of these species of insects in nature. Climate warming has the potential to affect some processes related to the ecology and life cycle of the butterfly, especially directly controlled temperature, such as: gathering the required temperature for a species to reach reproductive maturity, growth initiation and cessation of growth (both processes are conditioned by certain values of temperature, constant for each species). Duration of embryonic development, characteristic of each species, is much influenced by temperature. The development postembryonal is strongly influenced by biotic factors (food), and by the abiotic (temperature, humidity). Temperature variation affects the mobility and life cycle of the butterfly, the effects on metabolic rate (McMillan et. all., 2005). It is believed that Lepidoptera are among the organisms most affected by global warming, which significantly influences their development cycle, reproduction and even survival. Moreover, generations of Lepidoptera are short and reproductive rates are high, so they are likely to respond more quickly to climate change, compared with bodies which have a long cycle life such as plants and vertebrates.