Applications of the Bootstrap to Insect Physiology

Abstract

The effect of temperature on development and the effect of photoperiod on diapause incidence of insects are common topics in insect physiology. Related to these topics, are 3 important concepts: the lower and upper developmental thresholds, which represent the lower and upper limits of thermal range for insects to develop, and the critical photoperiod, which causes diapause in 50% of a population. To compare lower or upper developmental thresholds of 2 different developmental stages or of 2 populations at the same developmental stage is difficult because of the lack of a suitable statistical method. Shi et al. (2010) proposed 2 methods for testing whether there is a significant difference between 2 lower developmental thresholds. However, these 2 methods are only applicable to the linear relationship between developmental rate and temperature. There are also many studies on the geographic variation in the critical photoperiods for different populations of an insect species. Also, a method is lacking for testing whether there is a significant difference between 2 critical photoperiods. In this study, we test bootstrap to determine if there is a significant difference between different parameters. Bootstrap can then be used to compare any 2 lower or upper developmental thresholds, or to compare 2 critical photoperiods. It can also provide the confidence interval of a critical photoperiod.