The Afrotropical breeding grounds of the Palearctic-African migratory painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui).

ABSTRACT: Migratory insects are key players in ecosystem functioning and services, but their spatiotemporal distributions are typically poorly known. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) may be used to predict species seasonal distributions, but the resulting hypotheses should eventually be validated by field data. The painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) performs multigenerational migrations between Europe and Africa and has become a model species for insect movement ecology. While the annual migration cycle of this species is well understood for Europe and northernmost Africa, it is still unknown where most individuals spend the winter. Through ENM, we previously predicted suitable breeding grounds in the subhumid regions near the tropics between November and February. In this work, we assess

SUBMITTER: Talavera G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10120051 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature