College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
Plant Protection Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Science and Technology, Nanning, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 4;7:39853. doi: 10.1038/srep39853.
Many moths finish their long distance migration after consecutive nights, but little is known about migration duration and distance. This information is key to predicting migration pathways and understanding their evolution. Tethered flight experiments have shown that ovarian development of rice leaf folder (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis [Guenée]) moths was accelerated and synchronized by flight in the first three nights, whereby most females were then matured for mating and reproduction. Thus, it was supposed that this moth might fly three nights to complete its migration. To test this hypothesis, 9 year's field data for C. medinalis was collected from Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region in China. Forward trajectories indicated that most moths arrived at suitable breeding areas after three nights' flight. Thus, for C. medinalis this migration duration and distance was a reasonable adaptation to the geographic distribution of suitable habitat. The development of female moth ovaries after three consecutive night flights appears to be a well-balanced survival strategy for this species to strike between migration and reproduction benefits. Hence, an optimum solution of migration-reproduction trade-offs in energy allocation evolved in response to the natural selection on migration route and physiological traits.
许多蛾类在连续几个夜晚后完成长途迁徙，但对于迁徙持续时间和距离知之甚少。这些信息是预测迁徙路径和了解其进化的关键。系留飞行实验表明，三晚的飞行加速并同步了水稻叶蝉（Cnaphalocrocis medinalis[Guenée]）蛾的卵巢发育，使大多数雌虫成熟以交配和繁殖。因此，人们推测这种蛾可能需要飞三个晚上才能完成迁徙。为了验证这一假设，对来自中国广西壮族自治区南宁市的 9 年 C. medinalis 田间数据进行了收集。轨迹表明，大多数飞蛾在三晚的飞行后到达了适宜的繁殖区域。因此，对于 C. medinalis 来说，这种迁徙持续时间和距离是对适宜栖息地地理分布的合理适应。雌蛾卵巢在连续三晚飞行后的发育似乎是该物种在迁徙和繁殖利益之间权衡的一种均衡生存策略。因此，在对迁徙路线和生理特征的自然选择下，能量分配中的迁徙-繁殖权衡的最优解决方案应运而生。
