Adults emerge in late spring, mate, and die shortly after laying eggs; their offspring will grow until pupation, enter diapause in anticipation of the winter, and emerge as adults the following year – thus resulting in a single generation of butterflies per year.
The Rocky Mountain parnassian and the High brown fritillary are more examples of univoltine butterfly species.
The term partial voltinism is used to refer to two different (but not necessarily exclusive) situations: The number of breeding cycles in a year is under genetic control in many species[7] and they are evolved in response to the environment.
[8] Others that bore in wood or other low-grade, but plentiful, food material may spend nearly the entire year feeding, with only brief pupal, adult and egg stages to complete a univoltine life cycle.
Yet other species that live in tropical regions with little seasonality may be highly multivoltine, with several generations feeding on constantly growing vegetation (such as some species of Saturniidae), or continually renewed detritus, such as Drosophila and many other genera of flies with a life cycle of just a week or two.