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Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration

Migratory hoverflies are long-range migrants that, in the Northern Hemisphere, move seasonally to higher latitudes in the spring and lower latitudes in the autumn. The preferred migratory direction of hoverflies in the autumn has been the subject of radar and flight simulator studies, while spring m...

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Autores principales: Hawkes, Will L., Weston, Scarlett T., Cook, Holly, Doyle, Toby, Massy, Richard, Guri, Eva Jimenez, Wotton Jimenez, Rex E., Wotton, Karl R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9533008/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36196552
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0318
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author Hawkes, Will L.
Weston, Scarlett T.
Cook, Holly
Doyle, Toby
Massy, Richard
Guri, Eva Jimenez
Wotton Jimenez, Rex E.
Wotton, Karl R.
author_facet Hawkes, Will L.
Weston, Scarlett T.
Cook, Holly
Doyle, Toby
Massy, Richard
Guri, Eva Jimenez
Wotton Jimenez, Rex E.
Wotton, Karl R.
author_sort Hawkes, Will L.
collection PubMed
description Migratory hoverflies are long-range migrants that, in the Northern Hemisphere, move seasonally to higher latitudes in the spring and lower latitudes in the autumn. The preferred migratory direction of hoverflies in the autumn has been the subject of radar and flight simulator studies, while spring migration has proved to be more difficult to characterize owing to a lack of ground observations. Consequently, the preferred migratory direction during spring has only been inferred from entomological radar studies and patterns of local abundance, and currently lacks ground confirmation. Here, during a springtime arrival of migratory insects onto the Isles of Scilly and mainland Cornwall, UK, we provide ground proof that spring hoverfly migrants have an innate northward preference. Captured migratory hoverflies displayed northward vanishing bearings when released under sunny conditions under both favourable wind and zero-wind conditions. In addition, and unlike autumn migrants, spring individuals were also able to orientate when the sun was obscured. Analysis of winds suggests an origin for insects arriving on the Isles of Scilly as being in western France. These findings of spring migration routes and preferred migration directions are likely to extend to the diverse set of insects found within the western European migratory assemblage.
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spelling pubmed-95330082022-10-26 Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration Hawkes, Will L. Weston, Scarlett T. Cook, Holly Doyle, Toby Massy, Richard Guri, Eva Jimenez Wotton Jimenez, Rex E. Wotton, Karl R. Biol Lett Animal Behaviour Migratory hoverflies are long-range migrants that, in the Northern Hemisphere, move seasonally to higher latitudes in the spring and lower latitudes in the autumn. The preferred migratory direction of hoverflies in the autumn has been the subject of radar and flight simulator studies, while spring migration has proved to be more difficult to characterize owing to a lack of ground observations. Consequently, the preferred migratory direction during spring has only been inferred from entomological radar studies and patterns of local abundance, and currently lacks ground confirmation. Here, during a springtime arrival of migratory insects onto the Isles of Scilly and mainland Cornwall, UK, we provide ground proof that spring hoverfly migrants have an innate northward preference. Captured migratory hoverflies displayed northward vanishing bearings when released under sunny conditions under both favourable wind and zero-wind conditions. In addition, and unlike autumn migrants, spring individuals were also able to orientate when the sun was obscured. Analysis of winds suggests an origin for insects arriving on the Isles of Scilly as being in western France. These findings of spring migration routes and preferred migration directions are likely to extend to the diverse set of insects found within the western European migratory assemblage. The Royal Society 2022-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9533008/ /pubmed/36196552 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0318 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Animal Behaviour
Hawkes, Will L.
Weston, Scarlett T.
Cook, Holly
Doyle, Toby
Massy, Richard
Guri, Eva Jimenez
Wotton Jimenez, Rex E.
Wotton, Karl R.
Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
title Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
title_full Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
title_fullStr Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
title_full_unstemmed Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
title_short Migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
title_sort migratory hoverflies orientate north during spring migration
topic Animal Behaviour
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9533008/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36196552
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0318
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