Fruit Pest Events and Phenological Development According to Accumulated Heat Units

Abstract

Mammals are "warm-blooded" and develop at a constant rate regardless of the environmental temperature, because they are able to maintain an internal temperature that allows their biochemical reactions to progress normally. Insects, which are "exothermic" (the same temperature as their environment; there is no such thing as "cold-blooded"), do not generate body heat, and are therefore limited in their development to periods of favorable external temperature. Below a certain temperature, which varies among species, the insect's biochemical reactions cannot proceed, and development stops. This temperature is known as the insect's developmental threshold ordevelopmental base. By charting the ambient temperature, it is possible to keep track of insect development, which is directly proportional to the amount of time accumulated above the developmental threshold (up to some maximum not often reached during the season). We arbitrarily divide this time into heat units, or degree-days (DD)