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Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent
Large numbers of the Globe Skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens) appear in the Maldives every October–December. Since they cannot breed on these largely waterless islands, it has recently been suggested that they are “falling out” during a trans-oceanic flight from India to East Africa. In addition...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3527571/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23285106 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052594 |
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author | Hobson, Keith A. Anderson, R. Charles Soto, David X. Wassenaar, Leonard I. |
author_facet | Hobson, Keith A. Anderson, R. Charles Soto, David X. Wassenaar, Leonard I. |
author_sort | Hobson, Keith A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Large numbers of the Globe Skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens) appear in the Maldives every October–December. Since they cannot breed on these largely waterless islands, it has recently been suggested that they are “falling out” during a trans-oceanic flight from India to East Africa. In addition, it has been suggested that this trans-oceanic crossing is just one leg of a multi-generational migratory circuit covering about 14,000–18,000 km. The dragonflies are presumed to accomplish this remarkable feat by riding high-altitude winds associated with the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). While there is considerable evidence for this migratory circuit, much of that evidence is circumstantial. Recent developments in the application of stable isotope analyses to track migratory dragonflies include the establishment of direct associations between dragonfly wing chitin δ (2)H values with those derived from long-term δ (2)H precipitation isoscapes. We applied this approach by measuring wing chitin δ (2)H values in 49 individual Pantala flavescens from the November–December migration through the Maldives. Using a previously established spatial calibration algorithm for dragonflies, the mean wing δ (2)H value of −117±16 ‰ corresponded to a predicted mean natal ambient water source of −81 ‰, which resulted in a probabilistic origin of northern India, and possibly further north and east. This strongly suggests that the migratory circuit of this species in this region is longer than previously suspected, and could possibly involve a remarkable trans-Himalayan high-altitude traverse. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3527571 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-35275712013-01-02 Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent Hobson, Keith A. Anderson, R. Charles Soto, David X. Wassenaar, Leonard I. PLoS One Research Article Large numbers of the Globe Skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens) appear in the Maldives every October–December. Since they cannot breed on these largely waterless islands, it has recently been suggested that they are “falling out” during a trans-oceanic flight from India to East Africa. In addition, it has been suggested that this trans-oceanic crossing is just one leg of a multi-generational migratory circuit covering about 14,000–18,000 km. The dragonflies are presumed to accomplish this remarkable feat by riding high-altitude winds associated with the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). While there is considerable evidence for this migratory circuit, much of that evidence is circumstantial. Recent developments in the application of stable isotope analyses to track migratory dragonflies include the establishment of direct associations between dragonfly wing chitin δ (2)H values with those derived from long-term δ (2)H precipitation isoscapes. We applied this approach by measuring wing chitin δ (2)H values in 49 individual Pantala flavescens from the November–December migration through the Maldives. Using a previously established spatial calibration algorithm for dragonflies, the mean wing δ (2)H value of −117±16 ‰ corresponded to a predicted mean natal ambient water source of −81 ‰, which resulted in a probabilistic origin of northern India, and possibly further north and east. This strongly suggests that the migratory circuit of this species in this region is longer than previously suspected, and could possibly involve a remarkable trans-Himalayan high-altitude traverse. Public Library of Science 2012-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3527571/ /pubmed/23285106 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052594 Text en © 2012 Hobson et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Hobson, Keith A. Anderson, R. Charles Soto, David X. Wassenaar, Leonard I. Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent |
title | Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent |
title_full | Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent |
title_fullStr | Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent |
title_full_unstemmed | Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent |
title_short | Isotopic Evidence That Dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) Migrating through the Maldives Come from the Northern Indian Subcontinent |
title_sort | isotopic evidence that dragonflies (pantala flavescens) migrating through the maldives come from the northern indian subcontinent |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3527571/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23285106 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052594 |
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