Temperature during pupal development affects hoverfly developmental time, adult lifespan and wing length

Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) are cosmopolitan, generalist flower visitors and among the most important pollinators after bees and bumblebees. The dronefly Eristalis tenax can be found in temperate and continental climates across the globe, often synanthropically. Eristalis tenax pupae of different generations and different climate zones are thus exposed to vastly different temperatures. In many insects, the ambient temperature during the pupal stage affects development, adult size, and survival; however, the effect of developmental temperature on these traits in hoverflies is comparatively poorly understood. We here reared E. tenax pupae at different temperatures, from 10°C to 25°C, and quantified the effect on adult hoverflies. We found that pupal rearing at 17°C appeared to be optimal, with high eclosion rates, longer wings, and increased adult longevity. Rearing temperatures above or below this optimum led to decreased eclosion rates, wing size, and adult survival. Similar thermal..., Animals
We collected egg batches from female Eristalis tenax hoverflies wild caught under permit in Wittunga Botanic Garden (Adelaide, South Australia) and reared the larvae in fresh rabbit dung (Nicholas et al. 2018) at room temperature (22.8 ± 1.0°C). Each batch contained around 200 eggs (Nicholas et al. 2018). Third instar larvae were moved to small containers for rearing in different temperature conditions until the adult hoverflies emerged from the pupae. All pupae were kept in small, transparent containers fitted with a mesh under a 16 hour light: 8 hour dark cycle, with light provided by Arlec LED lights (UC0168, 350 lumens, warm white, Arlec Electrical Services, Australia) controlled by a timer. We exposed the pupae to 5 different temperatures. The coldest was achieved using a fridge (Hisense, HR6AF243, Hisense Australia) set to 10°C (10.1 ± 0.47°C). The 12°C (12.1 ± 0.54°C) and 17°C (17.4 ± 0.37°C) pupae were kept in wine coolers (Kogan 8 Bottle Thermoelectric Wine Cooler, Koga..., , ## Temperature during pupal development affects hoverfly developmental time, adult lifespan and wing length

**Authors:**
Klára Daňková
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
[e-mail]

Sarah Nicholas
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
[e-mail]

Karin Nordström\*
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
[e-mail]

\*corresponding author

## Description:
This ReadMe file describes the structure of the data folder that accompanies publication Daňková et al. 2022 focusing on effect of the rearing temperature on activity, eclosion rate, pupal duration, morphometrics (body size, wing size, wing:thorax ratio, coloration), survival and weight gain of a cosmopolitan pollinator species, hoverfly Eristalis tenax (Diptera, Syrphidae).

**Units and date format:**
Temperature units: °C (Celsius)
Unit system: metric
Date format: DD/MM/YYYY

## Structure
1\_Raw\_data
1a) Raw\_data\_activity (1 folde...