Scientists have pursued butterfly Vanessa cardui through Africa to study their migration. The path that is common in many birds, but it is the first case where it is shown that a butterfly can do the same.
Vanessa cardui butterfly is an insect that each year makes a round trip between Europe and Africa. So far, it knew that disappeared from Europe in the fall and thought that was set in North Africa for the winter. Now, thanks to field expeditions in Africa by scientists at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, a joint center of the CSIC and UPF, and Harvard University (EU) has shown that it can reach the African tropical savannah , ie, it makes a journey of 4,000 kilometers.
The insect not only withstand a long journey, but also traverses mountains, the Mediterranean and the Sahara Desert. So, despite having a fragile appearance, it can withstand extreme temperatures and bearings while flying at high altitude. It feeds on a variety of plants including thistles, which owes the popular name of Cardero.
Gerard Talavera and Roger Vila, researchers conducting the study, spent an entire autumn touring countries such as Senegal, Benin, Chad and Ethiopia looking specimens of this species. During this expedition they could see a mass migration of thousands of Carderas south in the Sahel. In Benin, in a single field in the course of the Niger River, they found more than 20,000 butterflies emerging from the pupa. These observations imply that the annual migratory range of the species is twice what was previously thought.
Such a long and complicated journey is perhaps not an easy lifestyle, but some animals are forced to do so to exploit the resources of each season and to ensure a favorable climate. As for the butterflies, the best known example is that of the monarch, who travels from Canada to Mexico in multitudinous groups butterfly.
Unique among insects
“The case of migration of Vanessa cardui is unique among all insects. It is the butterfly species with a more cosmopolitan distribution and performs migratory circuits throughout the world that we are virtually unknown. His dispersive skills are impressive. The migrations between Africa and Europe that we now know are just the tip of the iceberg of all the migrations that is certainly able to do in other parts of the world, “Talavera said.
According to Vila, it is a well known phenomenon and studied in some birds migrating between Europe and tropical Africa. “Now we have demonstrated that at least one species of butterfly, the Cardero, is also capable of making such an extreme trip. To study them in Africa, often we crossed the Sahara desert air and I remember looking at the immensity of sand thousands of square kilometers from the window, I thought we were trying to prove something almost impossible, “emphasizes Vila.
The results are published today in the journal Biological Journal of the Linnean Society and prodigious tell the story of the migration of Carderas and interesting expeditions that led to their discovery. The study has the support of National Geographic Society and the European Union for the value of this project to the knowledge of such a peculiar adaptation and conservation of this butterfly so unique.
