Appetitive flight patterns of male Agrotis segetum moths over landscape scales
Reynolds, A.M., Reynolds, D.R., Smith, A.D., Svensson, G.P. and Löfstedt, C. (2007) Appetitive flight patterns of male Agrotis segetum moths over landscape scales. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 245 (1). pp. 141-149. ISSN 0022-5193 (doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.10.007)Full text not available from this repository.
An analysis is presented of the first harmonic radar studies of pheromone-plume locating flights of male Agrotis segetum moths over distances of up to 500 m. Upon release most moths flew in a direction having a downwind component. The first significant changes in flight orientations occur in the immediate vicinity of a pheromone source. Moths that were initially flying downwind change course and
start flying crosswind whilst those that initially flew crosswind change course and start flying upwind. It is shown that such behaviour is consistent with the adoption of an effective plume-location strategy, and conditions are identified when downwind flights would be more advantageous than crosswind ones. Additionally, some of the complex flight patterns that can arise at later times are shown to be compatible with the adoption of an optimal biased scale-free (Lévy-flight) searching strategy. It is found that disruptive doses of sex pheromone can have a marked influence upon male moth flight patterns.
|Uncontrolled Keywords:||Agrotis segetum, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, pheromone plumes, casting, Lévy flights|
|Subjects:||Q Science > Q Science (General)|
Q Science > QL Zoology
|School / Department / Research Groups:||Natural Resources Institute|
Natural Resources Institute > Agriculture, Health & Environment
|Last Modified:||04 Nov 2011 14:25|
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