Hawkes Will L, Menz Myles H M, Wotton Karl R
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn, TR10 9FE, UK.
Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach, 6204, Switzerland.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2025 Aug;100(4):1635-1659. doi: 10.1111/brv.70017. Epub 2025 Apr 1.
Insect migrants are hugely abundant, with recent studies identifying the megadiverse order Diptera as the major component of many migratory assemblages. Despite this, their migratory behaviour has been widely overlooked in favour of more 'charismatic' migrant insects such as butterflies, dragonflies, and moths. Herein we review the available literature on dipteran migration to determine its prevalence, identify key migratory routes and elucidate areas that may prove fruitful for future research. Using 13 lines of evidence to determine migratory behaviour, we determined that species from 60 out of 130 dipteran families show evidence of migration, with Syrphidae fulfilling 12 of these criteria, followed by the Tephritidae with 10. By contrast, 22 families met just two criteria or fewer, underlining the need for more research into the migratory characteristics of these groups. In total, 592 species of Diptera were identified as potentially migratory, making them the most speciose group of insect migrants yet described. Despite this, only 0.5% of dipteran species were found to be migrants, a figure rising to 3% for the Syrphidae, a percentage mirrored by other migratory taxa such as butterflies, noctuid moths, and bats. Research was biased to locations in Europe (49% of publications) and while vast regions remain understudied, our review identified major flyways used by dipteran migrants across all biogeographic realms. Finally, we highlight an unsurpassed level of ecological diversity within dipteran migrants, including ecological roles of huge economic value. Overall, this review highlights how little is known about dipteran migration and how vital their migratory behaviour may be to the health of global ecosystems.
昆虫迁徙者数量极为庞大，最近的研究表明，种类繁多的双翅目是许多迁徙群体的主要组成部分。尽管如此，它们的迁徙行为却一直被广泛忽视，人们更关注蝴蝶、蜻蜓和飞蛾等更具“魅力”的迁徙昆虫。在此，我们回顾了关于双翅目昆虫迁徙的现有文献，以确定其普遍性，识别关键迁徙路线，并阐明可能对未来研究富有成果的领域。我们利用13条证据来确定迁徙行为，发现130个双翅目科中的60个科的物种有迁徙迹象，其中食蚜蝇科满足其中12条标准，其次是实蝇科，满足10条。相比之下，有22个科仅满足两条或更少标准，这凸显了对这些类群迁徙特征进行更多研究的必要性。总共592种双翅目昆虫被确定为可能具有迁徙性，使其成为迄今描述的最具物种多样性的昆虫迁徙群体。尽管如此，仅发现0.5%的双翅目物种是迁徙者，食蚜蝇科的这一比例升至3%，蝴蝶、夜蛾和蝙蝠等其他迁徙类群也呈现出类似的百分比。研究偏向于欧洲地区（占出版物的49%），虽然广大地区仍未得到充分研究，但我们的综述确定了双翅目迁徙者在所有生物地理区域使用的主要迁徙路线。最后，我们强调双翅目迁徙者具有无与伦比的生态多样性水平，包括具有巨大经济价值的生态作用。总体而言，本综述凸显了我们对双翅目昆虫迁徙了解之少，以及它们的迁徙行为对全球生态系统健康可能至关重要的程度。
