Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings

The migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in North America has a number of parallels with long-distance bird migration, including the fact that migratory populations of monarchs have larger and more elongated forewings than residents. These characteristics likely serve to optimize flig...

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Autores principales:	Satterfield Dara A., Davis Andrew K.
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	De Gruyter 2015
Materias:	monarch butterfly danaus plexippus migration wing morphology wing color Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/621cba08d7184d729a02c8756b33aebe
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:621cba08d7184d729a02c8756b33aebe2021-12-02T19:11:32ZVariation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings2084-883810.2478/ami-2014-0001https://doaj.org/article/621cba08d7184d729a02c8756b33aebe2015-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.2478/ami-2014-0001https://doaj.org/toc/2084-8838The migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in North America has a number of parallels with long-distance bird migration, including the fact that migratory populations of monarchs have larger and more elongated forewings than residents. These characteristics likely serve to optimize flight performance in monarchs, as they also do with birds. A question that has rarely been addressed thus far in birds or monarchs is if and how wing characteristics vary within a migration season. Individuals with superior flight performance should migrate quickly, and/or with minimal stopovers, and these individuals should be at the forefront of the migratory cohort. Conversely, individuals with poor flight performance and/or low endurance would be more likely to fall behind, and these would comprise the latest migrants. Here we examined how the wing morphology of migrating monarchs varies to determine if wing characteristics of early migrants differ from late migrants. We measured forewing area, elongation (length/width), and redness, which has been shown to predict flight endurance in monarchs. Based on a collection of 75 monarchs made one entire season (fall 2010), results showed that the earliest migrants (n = 20) in this cohort had significantly redder and more elongated forewings than the latest migrants (n = 17). There was also a non-significant tendency for early migrants to have larger forewing areas. These results suggest that the pace of migration in monarchs is at least partly dependent on the properties of their wings. Moreover, these data also raise a number of questions about the ultimate fate of monarchs that fall behindSatterfield Dara A.Davis Andrew K.De Gruyterarticlemonarch butterflydanaus plexippusmigrationwing morphologywing colorBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENAnimal Migration, Vol 2, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	monarch butterfly danaus plexippus migration wing morphology wing color Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	monarch butterfly danaus plexippus migration wing morphology wing color Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Satterfield Dara A. Davis Andrew K. Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
description	The migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in North America has a number of parallels with long-distance bird migration, including the fact that migratory populations of monarchs have larger and more elongated forewings than residents. These characteristics likely serve to optimize flight performance in monarchs, as they also do with birds. A question that has rarely been addressed thus far in birds or monarchs is if and how wing characteristics vary within a migration season. Individuals with superior flight performance should migrate quickly, and/or with minimal stopovers, and these individuals should be at the forefront of the migratory cohort. Conversely, individuals with poor flight performance and/or low endurance would be more likely to fall behind, and these would comprise the latest migrants. Here we examined how the wing morphology of migrating monarchs varies to determine if wing characteristics of early migrants differ from late migrants. We measured forewing area, elongation (length/width), and redness, which has been shown to predict flight endurance in monarchs. Based on a collection of 75 monarchs made one entire season (fall 2010), results showed that the earliest migrants (n = 20) in this cohort had significantly redder and more elongated forewings than the latest migrants (n = 17). There was also a non-significant tendency for early migrants to have larger forewing areas. These results suggest that the pace of migration in monarchs is at least partly dependent on the properties of their wings. Moreover, these data also raise a number of questions about the ultimate fate of monarchs that fall behind
format	article
author	Satterfield Dara A. Davis Andrew K.
author_facet	Satterfield Dara A. Davis Andrew K.
author_sort	Satterfield Dara A.
title	Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
title_short	Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
title_full	Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
title_fullStr	Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
title_full_unstemmed	Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
title_sort	variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings
publisher	De Gruyter
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/621cba08d7184d729a02c8756b33aebe
work_keys_str_mv	AT satterfielddaraa variationinwingcharacteristicsofmonarchbutterfliesduringmigrationearliermigrantshaveredderandmoreelongatedwings AT davisandrewk variationinwingcharacteristicsofmonarchbutterfliesduringmigrationearliermigrantshaveredderandmoreelongatedwings
_version_	1718377090134310912

Variation in wing characteristics of monarch butterflies during migration: Earlier migrants have redder and more elongated wings

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