Time-restricted flight ability influences dispersal and colonization rates in a group of freshwater beetles.

ABSTRACT: Variation in the ability to fly or not is a key mechanism for differences in local species occurrences. It is increasingly acknowledged that physiological or behavioral mechanisms rather than morphological differences may drive flight abilities. However, our knowledge on the seasonal variability and stressors creating nonmorphological differences in flight abilities and how it scales to local and regional occurrences is very limited particularly for small, short-lived species such as insects. Here, we examine how flight ability might vary across seasons and between two closely related genera of freshwater beetles with similar geographical ranges, life histories, and dispersal-related morphology. By combining flight experiments of >1,100 specimens with colonization rates in a metacommunity

SUBMITTER: Iversen LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5288253 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature