Simple rules guide dragonfly migration.

ABSTRACT: Every year billions of butterflies, dragonflies, moths and other insects migrate across continents, and considerable progress has been made in understanding population-level migratory phenomena. However, little is known about destinations and strategies of individual insects. We attached miniaturized radio transmitters (ca 300 mg) to the thoraxes of 14 individual dragonflies (common green darners, Anax junius) and followed them during their autumn migration for up to 12 days, using receiver-equipped Cessna airplanes and ground teams. Green darners exhibited distinct stopover and migration days. On average, they migrated every 2.9+/-0.3 days, and their average net advance was 58+/-11 km in 6.1+/-0.9 days (11.9+/-2.8 km d-1) in a generally southward direction (186+/-52 degrees). They migrate

SUBMITTER: Wikelski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1686212 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature