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Observations on the flight paths of the day-flying moth Virbia lamae during periods of mate location: do males have a strategy for contacting the pheromone plume?

Observations on the flight paths of the day-flying moth Virbia lamae during periods of mate location: do males have a strategy for contacting the pheromone plume?
Observations on the flight paths of the day-flying moth Virbia lamae during periods of mate location: do males have a strategy for contacting the pheromone plume?
1.?To maximize the probability of rapid contact with a female’s pheromone plume, the trajectories of male foraging flights might be expected to be directed with respect to wind flow and also to be energetically efficient.

2.?Flights directed either upwind, downwind, or crosswind have been proposed as optimal strategies for rapid and/or energetically efficient plume contact. Other possible strategies are random and Lévy walks, which have trajectories and turn frequencies that are not dictated by the direction of wind flow.

3.?The planar flight paths of males of the day-active moth Virbia lamae were recorded during the customary time of its sexual activity.

4.?We found no directional preference in these foraging flights with respect to the direction of contemporaneous wind flow, but, because crosswind encompasses twice the possible orientations of either upwind or downwind, a random orientation is in effect a de facto crosswind strategy.

5.?A crosswind preference should be favoured when the plume extends farther downwind than crosswind, and this strategy is realized by V. lamae males by a random orientation of their trajectories with respect to current wind direction.

anemotaxis, appetitive, correlated random walk, foraging, lévy walk, odour plume, optimal strategy, orientation, virbia lamae
0021-8790
Cardé, Ring T.
057aa4f3-5a28-4354-8ab4-04395c163a92
Cardé, Anja M.
a7bb1d15-b3ad-4554-a335-98718301e463
Girling, Robbie D.
1044dcd8-9b1a-4f9c-bd42-7aa960de5470
Cardé, Ring T.
057aa4f3-5a28-4354-8ab4-04395c163a92
Cardé, Anja M.
a7bb1d15-b3ad-4554-a335-98718301e463
Girling, Robbie D.
1044dcd8-9b1a-4f9c-bd42-7aa960de5470

Cardé, Ring T., Cardé, Anja M. and Girling, Robbie D. (2012) Observations on the flight paths of the day-flying moth Virbia lamae during periods of mate location: do males have a strategy for contacting the pheromone plume? Journal of Animal Ecology. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01887.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

1.?To maximize the probability of rapid contact with a female’s pheromone plume, the trajectories of male foraging flights might be expected to be directed with respect to wind flow and also to be energetically efficient.

2.?Flights directed either upwind, downwind, or crosswind have been proposed as optimal strategies for rapid and/or energetically efficient plume contact. Other possible strategies are random and Lévy walks, which have trajectories and turn frequencies that are not dictated by the direction of wind flow.

3.?The planar flight paths of males of the day-active moth Virbia lamae were recorded during the customary time of its sexual activity.

4.?We found no directional preference in these foraging flights with respect to the direction of contemporaneous wind flow, but, because crosswind encompasses twice the possible orientations of either upwind or downwind, a random orientation is in effect a de facto crosswind strategy.

5.?A crosswind preference should be favoured when the plume extends farther downwind than crosswind, and this strategy is realized by V. lamae males by a random orientation of their trajectories with respect to current wind direction.

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More information

Published date: 5 July 2012
Keywords: anemotaxis, appetitive, correlated random walk, foraging, lévy walk, odour plume, optimal strategy, orientation, virbia lamae

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 192715
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/192715
ISSN: 0021-8790
PURE UUID: 4137c75f-446c-4f4e-bd58-53a140ef722e

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 07 Jul 2011 10:54
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 03:51

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Contributors

Author: Ring T. Cardé
Author: Anja M. Cardé
Author: Robbie D. Girling

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