The fingerprints of global climate change on insect populations

•Population dynamics change with climate means, variances, or the interaction.•Discrete generations plus climate change can lead to developmental traps.•Land use change may outweigh effects of climate change on population dynamics.•Models predict population response based on physiological mechanism.•The array of insects studied for effects of climate change must be expanded.

Synthesizing papers from the last two years, I examined generalizations about the fingerprints of climate change on insects' population dynamics and phenology. Recent work shows that populations can differ in response to changes in climate means and variances. The part of the thermal niche occupied by an insect population, voltinism, plasticity and adaptation to weather perturbations, and interactions with other species can all exacerbate or mitigate responses to climate change. Likewise, land use change or agricultural practices can affect responses to climate change. Nonetheless, our knowledge of effects of climate change is still biased by organism and geographic region, and to some extent by scale of climate parameter.

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