Figure 1.

Variation in insect lifespan. Lifespan varies by four orders of magnitude in the insects. The plot shows lifespan variation within and between some major insect orders and Collembola. For each group, one or two species are shown for comparison, with approximate mean or maximum lifespan in days (log-transformed) based on lab, field, or field-cage studies. Although some species exhibit considerable sexual dimorphism in lifespan, all lifespans shown are for females unless otherwise indicated. For social insects, lifespans are shown separately for queens and workers. Note that lifespan can be strongly affected by environmental factors such as diet, temperature, and crowding, and small differences between species in estimated mean lifespan should therefore be interpreted with caution. References are listed in parentheses to the right of Order name. Phylogeny is based on Reference 175. Photos courtesy of R. Bonduriansky.