A dynamic energy budget for the whole life-cycle of holometabolous insects

Abstract

Alterations of the amount and quality of food consumed during ontogeny can affect different life-history traits, such as growth rate, developmental time, survival, adult size, and fitness. Understanding the dynamics of such metabolic and energetic pathways and investments is particularly challenging in the case of holometabolous insects due to their strikingly different life stages. We show how whole life-cycle energy and mass budgets can be achieved for holometabolic insects through dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory, permitting the fate of acquired and stored nutrients to be followed over a complete life-cycle. We applied the DEB theory to model the whole life-cycle energetics of an endopa..