Diapause is commonly described through its environmental triggers, endocrine regulation, and developmental consequences, yet these perspectives often treat initiation, persistence, and termination as partially independent phenomena. This article proposes that insect diapause can be interpreted as a sequence of information-processing decisions in which environmental signals are acquired, evaluated, retained through physiological state, and reassessed before developmental reactivation. The framework does not imply cognition or a universal computational mechanism; rather, it organizes evidence showing that different diapause phases rely on different environmental histories, physiological states, and regulatory processes. Evidence across insect taxa indicates that cue reliability, developmental stage, endocrine state, metabolic organization, and previous environmental exposure influence diapause transitions. The proposed framework separates evidence-supported biological processes from theoretical synthesis and identifies boundaries where prediction remains uncertain. This perspective provides a conceptual structure for integrating ecological signals with physiological mechanisms while highlighting experimental requirements needed to test phase-specific information processing in insects.
