I'm not interested about Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) two-way migration.
I'm looking for explanation theories on other butterfly migrations.(Painted Lady , Red Admiral and so on)
Thanks!
Hello Tharindu:
Read the classical paper by Neal Smith about the host plant toxicity and migration in the dayflying moth Urania fulgens in Central and South America. Florida Entomologist 66: 76-86 ( 1983).
Day-flying Neotropical Urania fulgens moths undergo cyclical population fluctuations and massive one-way flights. There may be the return flight several months later, but these are scattered, not always annual, and composed of relatively emerged individuals that are usually in reproductive diapause. Presumably not all moths emigrate in the southward flight. The sole larval food plant Omphalea diandra, a toxic plant in the family Euphorbiaceae is the reason. The distribution of Omphalea and Urania coincide exactly but not all patches of Omphalea are occupied by Urania at any given time. The plants have chemical defenses against herbivores. When the level of toxicity in the plant is low, the caterpillars of Urania develops to a second generation but when the level of toxicity is high in response to herbivory the caterpillars die. In response Urania moths migrate to other regions where the plant defenses are low. So it is the plant´s response that determines the four year cycle in Urania.
Regards,
Luis Miguel
Hi Tharindu,
Please go through my recently published paper on premigratory Lepidoptera in the Western Ghats.
Best
Hello Dear
I think It is proposed to find overwintering sitesThe Colombus Hypothesis is another theory that accounts for the phenomena of the mass migration.This theory discusses how many butterflies engage in mass movements to expand their range. Best regards
Dear Luis, Milind and Masoud,
Thank you very much for your help on this matter!
Best,
Tharindu.
I think you could look at paper which deals with the long-distance migration circuit of the Painted Lady in Europe and North Africa.
Also look at the butterfly bits of Hugh Dingle's textbook on Animal Migration.
Best, Don R.
Stefanescu, C. et al. (2013). Multi-generational long-distance migration of insects: studying the painted lady butterfly in the Western Palaearctic. Ecography, 36, 474-486. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07738.x
Dingle, H. (2014). Migration: The Biology of Life on the Move, 2nd edn.. Oxford University Press, UK.
Well, everything depends on how you are going to define the term 'butterfly migration'; even range expansion can be an example and migration does not always refer to two way movements.
I just have started my Ph.D. a few months ago and am working on migratory butterflies. While doing the review work, I have found these three papers as very helpful, especially to strngthen my understandings:
1. Dingle, H., 2001. The evolution of migratory syndromes in insects. Insect movement: mechanisms and consequences, pp.159-181.
2. Dingle, H. and Drake, V.A., 2007. What is migration?. Bioscience, 57(2), pp.113-121.
3. Chapman, J.W. and Drake, V.A., 2016. Insect migration.
Another suggestion: ‘Animal migration’ (Cambridge University Press, 1981), edited by D. J. Aidley. Some of the classic references on the subject are included in the bibliography of the various chapters of this book. (See especially the chapter ‘Ecological aspects of insect migration’, by T. R. E. Southwood.)
If possible, see also ‘The biology of butterflies’ (Academic, 1984), edited by R. I. Vane-Wright & P. R. Ackery.
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