High migratory potential of fall armyworm in West Africa despite stable temperatures and widely available year-round habitats.

ABSTRACT: The fall armyworm (FAW), an important migratory pest native to the Americas, was first detected in a nonnative region (West Africa) in 2016. In the following years, it quickly spread to multiple regions worldwide. FAW exhibits long-distance seasonal migration in both the Americas and Asia, primarily to take advantage of suitable seasonal habitats as they appear along the migratory pathways. Tropical West Africa experiences minimal annual temperature variation and has widely distributed potential year-round habitats, leading us to hypothesize that the migration capacity of FAW populations in this region may be substantially reduced. To test our hypothesis, we assessed the flight performance of FAW collected from Ghana in West Africa with tethered flight mills and compared it to that of a FA

SUBMITTER: Gao FQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12905470 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature