I have documented the westward expansion of a number of Himalayan butterflies and moths during the last 50 years, probably in response to milder winters and increased soil humidity. This has not been matched with a northern movement along the Western Ghats, as might have been expected. Has range extension in response to warming or contraction due to cooling been noticed on other continents? If so, have thermal tolerance and humidity tolerance parameters been discerned for the affected species?
Peter, there are a lot of data for expanded areas of insects in Russia. First, they just move to North to occupy new area of favorable temperatures for feeding, second, they propagate in new area, and third, they produce additional generations during longer summer. It is important factor for vectored plant pathogens distribution, because summer generation have higher frequency of infection by bacteria, mycoplasmas and viruses. Sorry, but most reports about this were in Russian like http://csfm.marstu.net/presentation/Rubcov.pdf
Hello Peter,
It is not easy to say something more about all group of insects but a good European example is Mantis religiosa (Mantodea). Recently this species is expanding its distribution in Poland, most probably because of climate warming. A few decades ago it was known only from several localities restricted to the most SE part of the country. During last years it is "going" in NW direction . It is also much more abundant in in SW Poland than few decades ago.
Best regards,
Radomir
Hi Peter,
Here are a couple recent reviews you may find useful:
An article: Weed et al. 2013
http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/13-0160.1
A book chapter: Tobin et al. 2014
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-7076-8_12
Dear Alex, Radomir and Daniel, thank you for the information. Interesting that the expansion is being seen largely in the context of challenges to the extant forest system. Here in the western Himalaya, we see the influx of tropical forms as the modification of those parameters that were, until now, preventing them from colonizing the area, eg. nearly doubling of the hawkmoth species would mean warmer winters and more soil humidity (which used to be pretty dry earlier), so that the pupae are not desiccated; ditto for several tropical butterflies.
This is rather a Godsend, because the task of re-growing broadleaf forests on the watersheds is made considerably easier and quicker. However, we will have to keep a weather eye open for the outbreaks and pathogens that will inevitably follow.
Curiously, several of the 'new' butterfly records were reported from the area during the 1880s, giving rise to the suspicion that the ecosystem here has 'seen it all before rather recently', which is why it is resilient to pathogens.
Peter, we have many facts of new species migration 200-400 km to North without propagation, including insects, ticks and spiders. It is expected because of longer frost-free period (in moscow region - 2-3 months longer than average for 1900-1990) during the last 15 years. Last winter at North Caucasus region was with temperature above 0oC (in fact around 15oC) was caused massive migration of tulpin mites from wild plants to winter wheat and virus infection of cereals. This winter in European part of Russia has so far temperature 7oC above the average.
Thank you for this information, Alex! There seem to have been non-colonizing expansions here, too. The hawkmoths, though, have established themselves in the W. Himalaya during the past 40 years. Earlier (prior to 1937) they were known from the eastern Himalaya. We started monitoring moths during the 1970s.
This year seems to be a really warm winter for you, while here in the Himalaya, it is uncharacteristically cold, at least compared to the last ten years. This means it is likely that the population of some of the new entrants should be reduced in the coming summer. Time will tell!
The effect of a higher average temperature is clearly visible in the Netherlands. Several species of dragonflies previously known only from counties south of ours have established populations. See: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257181582_Changes_in_the_range_of_dragonflies_in_the_Netherlands_and_the_possible_role_of_temperature_change
Article Changes in the range of dragonflies in The Netherlands and t...
Thank you, Arjan. This paper is useful. Let us see how long these newly established species manage to stay...
When one range margin is expanding other margins of the same range may be stable, expanding or contracting. To differentiate range expansion overall from expansion of particular local range limits it's necessary to examine all range margins. An old paper that examines both poleward and equatorial limtis and shows a general trend towards expansion is Parmesan et al in Nature 1999; More recent papers have also shown that the trend for poleward limts to expand is stronger than the trend for equatorial limits to contract, so ranges are tending to expanding. These newer papers should be finable by looking for papers that cite the 1999 paper.
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