Seasonal spatial dynamics of butterfly migration

Abstract

Understanding the seasonal movements of migratory species underpins ecological studies. Several hundred butterfly species show migratory behaviour, yet the spatial pattern of these migrations is poorly understood. We developed climatic niche models for 405 migratory butterfly species globally to estimate patterns of seasonal movement and the distribution of seasonal habitat suitability. We found strong seasonal variation in habitat suitability for most migratory butterflies with >75% of pixels within their distributions showing seasonal switching in predicted occupancy for 85% of species. The greatest rate of seasonal switching occurred in the tropics. Several species showed extreme range fluctuations between seasons, exceeding 10‐fold for 53 species (13%) and more than 100‐fold for nine species (2%), suggesting that such species may be at elevated extinction risk. Our results can be used to search for the ecological processes that underpin migration in insects, as well as to design conservation interventions for declining migratory insects.

The Role of River Flooding as an Environmental Filter for Amazonian Butterfly Assemblages

“…Butterflies are strongly associated with specific habitats at all life stages (Freitas et al, 2006) and are relatively sedentary in the larval stage, but are highly vagile in the adult phase and can have seasonal adaptations (phenological or migratory) to environmental changes (Diamond et al, 2011;Chowdhury et al, 2021). Vegetation gradients represent changes in the availability of food resources and physical conditions of the environment, which directly affect the spatial distribution of Amazonian fruitfeeding butterflies (Ribeiro and Freitas, 2012;Graça et al, 2015Graça et al, , 2017a.…”

Remote Sensing of Floral Resources for Pollinators – New Horizons From Satellites to Drones

“…Pollinating insects vary widely in how far they travel to forage or during migrations, with small-sized pollinators typically traveling shorter distances up to 1.4 km (Nicholls et al, 2022). Larger-sized, generalist pollinators travel further (e.g., social bees typically travel 1-2 km while the bumblebee-tailed bumblebee and Western honeybee can travel 12-15 km), while some species of butterfly can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers during migrations (e.g., Chowdhury et al, 2020). Additionally, the required sampling timescales vary depending on individual or colony lifespans.…”

Selection on size has generated distinctive paired wing flight systems for butterfly flight and migration

“…We compared our analysis of wing trait data gathered from exemplar species included in the tribal level phylogeny of Espeland et al 27 against a recently published list of migratory butterfly species by Chowdhury et al 1 , including estimates of range size and seasonal switching (seasonal changes in habitat suitability 46 ). Migratory behaviors were quantified based on experimental, physiological, or population evidence 1 including: Mark-release-recapture; trap catches; tethered flight measurements; amplified fragment length polymorphism; radar observations; flight in beneficial compass direction; stable isotopes; maintaining constant compass course by using wind drift compensation; larvae incapable of development in unfavorably seasonal climates, extended pre-oviposition period; larval host plant absent; and breeding population not established.…”