JULY 8,
2019
Wind and
warmth can improve travel time for the billions of insects worldwide that
migrate each year, according to a first-ever radio-tracking study by University
of Guelph biologists.
Researchers
equipped monarch
butterfliesand green darner dragonflies with radio transmitters and tracked
them through southern Ontario and several northern States to learn how
environmental factors affect daytime insect migration.
Learning
more about what happens to insects during
their physically taxing migration
period may help in efforts to conserve them, particularly threatened
species, said the researchers.
The
study, which was recently published in Biology Letters, found wind and
temperature are more important influences than precipitation for bugs on autumn
migration flights spanning thousands of kilometres between their breeding and
wintering grounds.
As part
of their multigenerational migration, monarchs from Canada overwinter in Mexico
and green darners travel to the southern United States.
Until
recently, their small size has made individual insects hard to track. But it's
increasingly critical to do just that, said lead author Samantha Knight.
Insects
on the wing play vital roles in pollinating crops and in maintaining ecosystems
as both prey and predators.
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