The University of Helsinki - research news
Antennas on butterflies
Will butterflies adapt as their living environments become fragmented? Will they fly more? Will evolution be fast enough to cope with the change?
Week 51 / 2008
To chart the movements of butterflies, the highly esteemed metapopulation biology research group of the University of Helsinki put antennas on the backs of Glanville fritillary butterflies captured in China, Estonia and the Åland Islands.
The butterflies were taken to England, where the Rothemstad research institute has developed a harmonic radar suitable for the real time tracking of insects.
Transmitters, or GPS collars, are common tools for tracking bears and other large mammals, but they have not been used to any significant extent to study the movements of insects.
The researchers were in for a surprise, and they published their findings in a recent issue of the PNAS magazine of the American National Academy of Sciences. Information was gathered on the natural environment along the flight paths of more than 50 kilometres, with location information received from the butterflies every three seconds.
The different home environments had no effect on the flight of the butterflies; the butterflies that had matured in the large unbroken living environments of China and Estonia flew as diligently as those taken from the small fields of the Åland Islands.
The greatest variation in flight methods was found within the butterflies taken from Åland. Butterflies taken from recently established populations were particularly active, while the ones from populations more than five years old moved less than any other group.
The remarkably exact information on flight patterns showed that the evolution of insects is very fast. In five years, the average mobility of the population went from one extreme to another.
Text: Virve Pohjanpalo
Photo: Otso Ovaskainen
Translation: AAC Noodi
