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Journal articles on the topic 'Nocturnal flying insects'
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1
NOWINSZKY, L. "NOCTURNAL ILLUMINATION AND NIGHT FLYING INSECTS." Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 2, no. 1 (2004): 17–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.15666/aeer/02017052.
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Straka, Tanja M., Pia E. Lentini, Linda F. Lumsden, Sascha Buchholz, Brendan A. Wintle, and Rodney van der Ree. "Clean and Green Urban Water Bodies Benefit Nocturnal Flying Insects and Their Predators, Insectivorous Bats." Sustainability 12, no. 7 (2020): 2634. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12072634.
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Nocturnal arthropods form the prey base for many predators and are an integral part of complex food webs. However, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms influencing invertebrates at urban water bodies and the potential flow-on effects to their predators. This study aims to: (i) understand the importance of standing water bodies for nocturnal flying insect orders, including the landscape- and local-scale factors driving these patterns; and (ii) quantify the relationship between insects and insectivorous bats. We investigated nocturnal flying insects and insectivorous bats simultaneously at water bodies (n = 58) and non-water body sites (n = 35) using light traps and acoustic recorders in Melbourne, Australia. At the landscape scale, we found that the presence of water and high levels of surrounding greenness were important predictors for some insect orders. At the water body scale, low levels of sediment pollutants, increased riparian tree cover and water body size supported higher insect order richness and a greater abundance of Coleopterans and Trichopterans, respectively. Most bat species had a positive response to a high abundance of Lepidopterans, confirming the importance of this order in the diet of insectivorous bats. Fostering communities of nocturnal insects in urban environments can provide opportunities for enhancing the prey base of urban nocturnal insectivores.
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Baird, Emily, Eva Kreiss, William Wcislo, Eric Warrant, and Marie Dacke. "Nocturnal insects use optic flow for flight control." Biology Letters 7, no. 4 (2011): 499–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.1205.
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To avoid collisions when navigating through cluttered environments, flying insects must control their flight so that their sensory systems have time to detect obstacles and avoid them. To do this, day-active insects rely primarily on the pattern of apparent motion generated on the retina during flight (optic flow). However, many flying insects are active at night, when obtaining reliable visual information for flight control presents much more of a challenge. To assess whether nocturnal flying insects also rely on optic flow cues to control flight in dim light, we recorded flights of the nocturnal neotropical sweat bee, Megalopta genalis , flying along an experimental tunnel when: (i) the visual texture on each wall generated strong horizontal (front-to-back) optic flow cues, (ii) the texture on only one wall generated these cues, and (iii) horizontal optic flow cues were removed from both walls. We find that Megalopta increase their groundspeed when horizontal motion cues in the tunnel are reduced (conditions (ii) and (iii)). However, differences in the amount of horizontal optic flow on each wall of the tunnel (condition (ii)) do not affect the centred position of the bee within the flight tunnel. To better understand the behavioural response of Megalopta , we repeated the experiments on day-active bumble-bees ( Bombus terrestris ). Overall, our findings demonstrate that despite the limitations imposed by dim light, Megalopta —like their day-active relatives—rely heavily on vision to control flight, but that they use visual cues in a different manner from diurnal insects.
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Bhardwaj, Manisha, Kylie Soanes, José J. Lahoz-Monfort, Linda F. Lumsden, and Rodney van der Ree. "Little evidence of a road-effect zone for nocturnal, flying insects." Ecology and Evolution 9, no. 1 (2018): 65–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4609.
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Salazar, Juan Esteban, Daniel Severin, Tomas Vega-Zuniga, et al. "Anatomical Specializations Related to Foraging in the Visual System of a Nocturnal Insectivorous Bird, the Band-Winged Nightjar (Aves: Caprimulgiformes)." Brain, Behavior and Evolution 94, Suppl. 1-4 (2019): 27–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000504162.
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Nocturnal animals that rely on their visual system for foraging, mating, and navigation usually exhibit specific traits associated with living in scotopic conditions. Most nocturnal birds have several visual specializations, such as enlarged eyes and an increased orbital convergence. However, the actual role of binocular vision in nocturnal foraging is still debated. Nightjars (Aves: Caprimulgidae) are predators that actively pursue and capture flying insects in crepuscular and nocturnal environments, mainly using a conspicuous “sit-and-wait” tactic on which pursuit begins with an insect flying over the bird that sits on the ground. In this study, we describe the visual system of the band-winged nightjar (Systellura longirostris), with emphasis on anatomical features previously described as relevant for nocturnal birds. Orbit convergence, determined by 3D scanning of the skull, was 73.28°. The visual field, determined by ophthalmoscopic reflex, exhibits an area of maximum binocular overlap of 42°, and it is dorsally oriented. The eyes showed a nocturnal-like normalized corneal aperture/axial length index. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) were relatively scant, and distributed in an unusual oblique-band pattern, with higher concentrations in the ventrotemporal quadrant. Together, these results indicate that the band-winged nightjar exhibits a retinal specialization associated with the binocular area of their dorsal visual field, a relevant area for pursuit triggering and prey attacks. The RGC distribution observed is unusual among birds, but similar to that of some visually dependent insectivorous bats, suggesting that those features might be convergent in relation to feeding strategies.
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Ober, Holly K., and John P. Hayes. "Influence of forest riparian vegetation on abundance and biomass of nocturnal flying insects." Forest Ecology and Management 256, no. 5 (2008): 1124–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2008.06.010.
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Cutler, G. Christopher, Kevin W. Reeh, Jason M. Sproule, and Krilen Ramanaidu. "Berry unexpected: Nocturnal pollination of lowbush blueberry." Canadian Journal of Plant Science 92, no. 4 (2012): 707–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4141/cjps2012-026.
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Cutler, C. G., Reeh, K. W., Sproule, J. M. and Ramanaidu, K. 2012. Berry unexpected: Nocturnal pollination of lowbush blueberry. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 707–711. Lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium, is an economically important crop of eastern North America that is critically dependent on insect-mediated cross-pollination for successful fruit set and high yields. It is generally assumed that bees are responsible for the vast majority of lowbush blueberry pollination, and producers usually augment the natural pollination force with managed bees. Little is known, however, of the potential role of nocturnal pollinators in lowbush blueberry production. We conducted a field experiment where patches of blooming blueberry were exposed to flying insects 24 h a day, only during the day (sunrise to sunset), only at night (sunset to sunrise), or 0 h a day. We found that significant fruit set occurred on blueberry stems that were exposed only at night, although it was higher on stems exposed during the day or 24 h a day. However, ripe fruit produced on stems exposed only at night weighed just as much as those exposed 24 h. Captures with Malaise traps activated only at night consisted mainly of several families of Lepidoptera and Diptera, although we do not know if these taxa pollinated blueberries. We conclude that nocturnal pollination may contribute significantly to lowbush blueberry fruit set.
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van Grunsven, Roy H. A., Julia Becker, Stephanie Peter, Stefan Heller, and Franz Hölker. "Long-Term Comparison of Attraction of Flying Insects to Streetlights after the Transition from Traditional Light Sources to Light-Emitting Diodes in Urban and Peri-Urban Settings." Sustainability 11, no. 22 (2019): 6198. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11226198.
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Among the different light sources used for street lighting, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are likely to dominate the world market in the coming years. At the same time, the spectral composition of nocturnal illumination is changing. Europe and many other areas worldwide have implemented bans on energy-inefficient lamps, such as the still very common mercury vapor lamps. However, the impact of artificial light on insects is mostly tested with light-traps or flight-intercept traps that are used for short periods only. By comparing the numbers of insects attracted by street lamps before and after replacing mercury vapor light sources (MV) with light emitting diodes, we assessed the impact in more typical (urban and peri-urban) settings over several years. We found that LED attracted approximately half of the number of insects compared to MV lights. Furthermore, most insect groups are less drawn by LED than by MV, while Hymenoptera are less attracted by MV than by LED. Thus, the composition of the attracted communities differed between the light sources, which may impact ecosystem processes and functions. In green peri-urban settings more insects are attracted than in an urban setting, but the relative difference between the light sources is the same.
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Fenton, M. B., D. Audet, M. K. Obrist, and J. Rydell. "Signal strength, timing, and self-deafening: the evolution of echolocation in bats." Paleobiology 21, no. 2 (1995): 229–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0094837300013221.
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We propose that the ancestors of bats were small, nocturnal, sylvatic gliders that used echolocation for general orientation. Their echolocation calls were short, low intensity, broadband clicks, which translated into a very short operational range. In the lineage that gave rise to bats, a switch to stronger, tonal signals permitted the use of echolocation to detect, track, and assess flying insects in subcanopy settings. We propose that these animals hunted from perches and used echolocation to detect, track, and assess flying insects, which they attacked while gliding. In this way, the perfection of echolocation for hunting preceded the appearance of flapping flight, which marked the emergence of bats. Flapping flight had appeared by the Eocene when at least eight families are known from the fossil record. Stronger signals and adaptations to minimize self-deafening were central to the perfection of echolocation for locating flying prey. Echolocation constituted a key innovation that permitted the evolution and radiation of bats. At the same time, however, its short effective range imposed a major constraint on the size of bats. This constraint is associated with flight speed and the very small time intervals from detection of, and contact with a flying target. Gleaning and high duty cycle echolocation are two derived approaches to hunting prey in cluttered situations, places where echoes from background and other objects arrive before or at the same time as echoes from prey. Both had appeared by the Eocene.
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Ruczyński, Ireneusz, Zuzanna Hałat, Marcin Zegarek, Tomasz Borowik, and Dina K. N. Dechmann. "Camera transects as a method to monitor high temporal and spatial ephemerality of flying nocturnal insects." Methods in Ecology and Evolution 11, no. 2 (2019): 294–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.13339.
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Sarto i Monteys, V., C. Quero, M. C. Santa-Cruz, G. Rosell, and A. Guerrero. "Sexual communication in day-flying Lepidoptera with special reference to castniids or ‘butterfly-moths’." Bulletin of Entomological Research 106, no. 4 (2016): 421–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0007485316000158.
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AbstractButterflies and moths are subject to different evolutionary pressures that affect several aspects of their behaviour and physiology, particularly sexual communication. Butterflies are day-flying insects (excluding hedylids) whose partner-finding strategy is mainly based on visual cues and female butterflies having apparently lost the typical sex pheromone glands. Moths, in contrast, are mostly night-flyers and use female-released long-range pheromones for partner-finding. However, some moth families are exclusively day-flyers, and therefore subject to evolutionary pressures similar to those endured by butterflies. Among them, the Castniidae, also called ‘butterfly-moths’ or ‘sun-moths’, behave like butterflies and, thus, castniid females appear to have also lost their pheromone glands, an unparallel attribute in the world of moths. In this paper, we review the sexual communication strategy in day-flying Lepidoptera, mainly butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), Zygaenidae and Castniidae moths, and compare their mating behaviour with that of moth families of nocturnal habits, paying particular attention to the recently discovered butterfly-like partner-finding strategy of castniids and the fascinating facts and debates that led to its discovery.
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Merckx, Thomas, and Hans Van Dyck. "Urbanization‐driven homogenization is more pronounced and happens at wider spatial scales in nocturnal and mobile flying insects." Global Ecology and Biogeography 28, no. 10 (2019): 1440–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb.12969.
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Frolov, Roman, Esa-Ville Immonen, and Matti Weckström. "Visual ecology and potassium conductances of insect photoreceptors." Journal of Neurophysiology 115, no. 4 (2016): 2147–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/jn.00795.2015.
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Voltage-activated potassium channels (Kv channels) in the microvillar photoreceptors of arthropods are responsible for repolarization and regulation of photoreceptor signaling bandwidth. On the basis of analyzing Kv channels in dipteran flies, it was suggested that diurnal, rapidly flying insects predominantly express sustained K+ conductances, whereas crepuscular and nocturnally active animals exhibit strongly inactivating Kv conductances. The latter was suggested to function for minimizing cellular energy consumption. In this study we further explore the evolutionary adaptations of the photoreceptor channelome to visual ecology and behavior by comparing K+ conductances in 15 phylogenetically diverse insects, using patch-clamp recordings from dissociated ommatidia. We show that rapid diurnal flyers such as the blowfly ( Calliphora vicina) and the honeybee ( Apis mellifera) express relatively large noninactivating Kv conductances, conforming to the earlier hypothesis in Diptera. Nocturnal and/or slow-moving species do not in general exhibit stronger Kv conductance inactivation in the physiological membrane voltage range, but the photoreceptors in species that are known to rely more on vision behaviorally had higher densities of sustained Kv conductances than photoreceptors of less visually guided species. No statistically significant trends related to visual performance could be identified for the rapidly inactivating Kv conductances. Counterintuitively, strong negative correlations were observed between photoreceptor capacitance and specific membrane conductance for both sustained and inactivating fractions of Kv conductance, suggesting insignificant evolutionary pressure to offset negative effects of high capacitance on membrane filtering with increased conductance.
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Vanitharani, Juliet. "The Emerging Trends in the Bio-Diversity of Bats in Tamil Nadu." Mapana - Journal of Sciences 2, no. 2 (2004): 14–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.12723/mjs.4.3.
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The news media, legends, 101k lore, television, movies and storybooks perpetuate myths. 'Fears about bots' a surprising number of people believe. Bots are instantly recognised yet poorly known. The hours Of twilight {Oltowed by darkness is the best feeding tirnö for these animals. The night is really alive with such nocturnal creatures. They inhabit Olmos' every comer Offhe globe. They ore not from Antarctica, Arctic tundra remote oceanic islands. Bots are unique elegant and fascinating, They ore the only mammals who mastered true, sustained flight much before man's own lineage began. More than Of all mammal species are bats. They 'See' With their ears, hang upside to sleep by day ond can catch insects while flying even in the darkest 0/ nights. Wing' forms 0 basis for Classifying os separote order Of Mammals. The order Chiroptera (Greek Pteros•wing), Which includes 1242 species.
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Feng, H. Q., K. M. Wu, D. F. Cheng, and Y. Y. Guo. "Radar observations of the autumn migration of the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and other moths in northern China." Bulletin of Entomological Research 93, no. 2 (2003): 115–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/ber2002221.
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AbstractThe autumn return migration of the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua Hübner and other insects in northern China was observed with radar and with a simultaneously-operated searchlight trap and ground light-trap at a site in Langfang, near Beijing. The searchlight trap was found to be an efficient tool for trapping migrants and, operated alongside a ground light-trap, could distinguish migrant from locally-flying species. It was confirmed that S. exigua and some other species were high-altitude nocturnal windborne migrants during September and October in northern China. Maximum density of moths typically occurred below 500 m, and strong layering was often observed at about 200 m above ground level in airflows that would carry the moths towards the south. Descent of S. exigua in the vicinity of the radar site in late September was often associated with rain.
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Reynolds, A. M., D. R. Reynolds, and J. R. Riley. "Does a ‘turbophoretic’ effect account for layer concentrations of insects migrating in the stable night-time atmosphere?" Journal of The Royal Society Interface 6, no. 30 (2008): 87–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2008.0173.
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Large migrating insects, such as noctuid moths and acridoid grasshoppers, flying within the stable nocturnal boundary layer commonly become concentrated into horizontal layers. These layers frequently occur near the top of the surface temperature inversion where warm fast-moving airflows provide good conditions for downwind migration. On some occasions, a layer may coincide with a higher altitude temperature maximum such as a subsidence inversion, while on others, it may seem unrelated to any obvious feature in the vertical profile of meteorological variables. Insects within the layers are frequently orientated, either downwind or at an angle to the wind, but the mechanisms involved in both layer formation and common orientation have remained elusive. Here, we show through the results of numerical simulations that if insects are treated as neutrally buoyant particles, they tend to be advected by vertical gusts (through the ‘turbophoretic’ mechanism) into layers in the atmosphere where the turbulent kinetic energy has local minima. These locations typically coincide with local maxima in the wind speed and/or air temperature, and they may also provide cues for orientation. However, the degree of layering predicted by this model is very much weaker than that observed in the field. We have therefore hypothesized that insects behave in a way that amplifies the turbophoretic effect by initiating climbs or descents in response to vertical gusts. New simulations incorporating this behaviour demonstrated the formation of layers that closely mimic field observations, both in the degree of concentration in layers and the rate at which they form.
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Cole, Hunter J., Cory A. Toth, and Jesse R. Barber. "Lights, bats, and buildings: investigating the factors influencing roosting sites and habitat use by bats in Grand Teton National Park." UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports 42 (December 15, 2019): 20–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.13001/uwnpsrc.2019.5693.
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Free-flying bats are highly affected by artificial night lighting, causing individuals to either 1) gather in unnaturally high densities around the light sources to exploit insects, or 2) travel increased distances to avoid light exposure. Similarly, nocturnal insects are disproportionately attracted to night lighting, trapping them until they die of exhaustion. The advent of new lighting technology which may decrease the impacts of night lighting on bats and insects by primarily producing light at wavelengths these animals are not sensitive to (i.e. in the red portion of the spectrum) is promising, however no studies have shown this at a large scale, and not in North America. Similarly, many studies on the effects of lights on bats, in general, have been on European species, and thus our overall understanding of how North American species are affected is low. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, provides an excellent natural system to study the effects of lights on bat behavior, as well as to test possible mitigation methods, as the park supports a large community of over a dozen species, as well as sizeable human infrastructure that generates night light. From June through September, 2019, we undertook a large-scale, blocked experiment examining bat activity and space use in Colter Bay Village under both traditional street-lighting, as well as new “bat friendly” street lighting. Using both passive echolocation records and radiotelemetry, we collected data that will allow us to examine the ability of red LED streetlights to mitigate artificial light’s negative impacts on bats and insects.
 
 Featured photo from figure 2 in report.
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Windsor, Shane P., and Graham K. Taylor. "Head movements quadruple the range of speeds encoded by the insect motion vision system in hawkmoths." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284, no. 1864 (2017): 20171622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1622.
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Flying insects use compensatory head movements to stabilize gaze. Like other optokinetic responses, these movements can reduce image displacement, motion and misalignment, and simplify the optic flow field. Because gaze is imperfectly stabilized in insects, we hypothesized that compensatory head movements serve to extend the range of velocities of self-motion that the visual system encodes. We tested this by measuring head movements in hawkmoths Hyles lineata responding to full-field visual stimuli of differing oscillation amplitudes, oscillation frequencies and spatial frequencies. We used frequency-domain system identification techniques to characterize the head's roll response, and simulated how this would have affected the output of the motion vision system, modelled as a computational array of Reichardt detectors. The moths' head movements were modulated to allow encoding of both fast and slow self-motion, effectively quadrupling the working range of the visual system for flight control. By using its own output to drive compensatory head movements, the motion vision system thereby works as an adaptive sensor, which will be especially beneficial in nocturnal species with inherently slow vision. Studies of the ecology of motion vision must therefore consider the tuning of motion-sensitive interneurons in the context of the closed-loop systems in which they function.
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Clark, Christopher J., Krista LePiane, and Lori Liu. "Evolutionary and Ecological Correlates of Quiet Flight in Nightbirds, Hawks, Falcons, and Owls." Integrative and Comparative Biology 60, no. 5 (2020): 1123–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaa039.
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Synopsis Two hypotheses have been proposed for the evolution of structures that reduce flight sounds in birds. According to the stealth hypothesis, flying quietly reduces the ability of other animals (e.g., prey) to detect the animal’s approach from its flight sounds. This hypothesis predicts that animals hunting prey with acute hearing evolve silencing features. The self-masking hypothesis posits that reduced flight sounds permit the animal itself to hear better (such as the sounds of its prey, or its own echolocation calls) during flight. This hypothesis predicts that quieting features evolve in predators that hunt by ear, or in species that echolocate. Owls, certain hawks, and nightbirds (nocturnal Caprimulgiformes) have convergently evolved a sound-reducing feature: a velvety coating on the dorsal surface of wing and tail feathers. Here we document a fourth independent origin of the velvet, in the American kestrel (Falco sparverius). Among these four clades (hawks, falcons, nightbirds, and owls), the velvet is longer and better developed in wing and tail regions prone to rubbing with neighboring feathers, apparently to reduce broadband frictional noise produced by rubbing of adjacent feathers. We tested whether stealth or self-masking better predicted which species evolved the velvet. There was no support of echolocation as a driver of the velvet: oilbird(Steatornis caripensis) and glossy swiftlet (Collocalia esculenta) each evolved echolocation but neither had any velvet. A phylogenetic least squares fit of stealth and self-masking (to better hear prey sounds) provided support for both hypotheses. Some nightbirds (nightjars, potoos, and owlet-nightjars) eat flying insects that do not make much sound, implying the velvet permits stealthy approach of flying insects. One nightbird clade, frogmouths (Podargus) have more extensive velvet than other nightbirds and may hunt terrestrial prey by ear, in support of self-masking. In hawks, the velvet is also best developed in species known or suspected to hunt by ear (harriers and kites), supporting the self-masking hypothesis, but velvet is also present in reduced form in hawk species not known to hunt by ear, in support of the stealth hypothesis. American kestrel is not known to hunt by ear, and unlike the other falcons sampled, flies slowly (kite-like) when hunting. Thus the presence of velvet in it supports the stealth hypothesis. All owls sampled (n = 13 species) had extensive velvet, including the buffy fish-owl (Ketupa ketupu), contrary to literature claims that fish-owls had lost the velvet. Collectively, there is support for both the self-masking and stealth hypotheses for the evolution of dorsal velvet in birds.
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Vorotkov, Michael, Alexandra Sinelschikova, and Martin Griffiths. "Optical Matrix Device: Technical Aspects of a New Tool for the Detection and Recording of Small Nocturnal Aerial Targets." Journal of Navigation 62, no. 1 (2008): 23–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0373463308005031.
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The detection of flying targets in the night sky has provided interest for bird migration research over many years with methods largely dependent on moon watching or the use of radar and infrared camera. These methods lack the versatility of the system described in this paper which detects and automatically records aerial targets in the night sky of a size greater than 5 cm and at a distance of 100 to 1000 metres from the observer. The principle design features are first, an optical device for receiving images of targets on two high-sensitivity CCD matrices when illuminated by white light from searchlight beams and secondly, instantaneous parallactic electronic computation enabling the distance from device to target to be accurately measured, and sequential images of each target to be recorded to computer. The device has been tested on targets during the main seasonal nocturnal migration of birds and provides accurate image details of important target flight parameters including: altitude, linear size (wing span and body length), direction of flight (ground track), orientation of the body axis – heading, ground speed, wing-beat frequency, number of wing-beats in each series of beats, duration of the pause between each series of wing-beats, and type of flight trajectory. There are also the potential practical applications for aviation bird-strike at night as well as the remote monitoring of insects, bats and other targets of natural and artificial origin.
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Riley, J. R., D. R. Reynolds, A. D. Smith, et al. "Observations of the autumn migration of the rice leaf roller Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and other moths in eastern China." Bulletin of Entomological Research 85, no. 3 (1995): 397–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0007485300036130.
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AbstractThe autumn migration of the rice leaf roller moth, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenée, in eastern China was studied at two sites (one in southern Jiangsu Province and one in northern Jiangxi Province), using radar and aerial netting. It was confirmed that C. medinalis is a high-altitude nocturnal windborne migrant, with large numbers of moths taking-off at dusk and flying continuously for several hours. Migration was post-teneral and the females had immature ovaries. Maximum densities of the moths typically occurred between 250 and 550 m above ground, and layering was intense on some nights. Moth layers often occurred at an altitude where there was a wind-speed maximum. In early September, migrant C. medinalis from southern Jiangsu Province were carried on the winds in an approximately westward direction. However, the winds prevailing in late September and October took migrants from both sites towards the south-west or south. Forward trajectories for C. medinalis and other insects emigrating from northern Jiangxi during October indicated that they were able to reach the tropical rice-growing areas near the south China coast, where year-round breeding would be possible. Incidental observations on the migratory flight of other lepidopteran pests, including Mythimna separata (Walker), Spodoptera litura (Fabricius), Ctenoplusia agnata (Staudinger) and Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (all Nocturidae), Spoladea recurvalis (Fabricius) and particularly Omiodes indicata (Fabricius) (both Pyralidae) are presented.
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Kawahara, Akito Y., David Plotkin, Marianne Espeland, et al. "Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 45 (2019): 22657–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907847116.
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Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are one of the major superradiations of insects, comprising nearly 160,000 described extant species. As herbivores, pollinators, and prey, Lepidoptera play a fundamental role in almost every terrestrial ecosystem. Lepidoptera are also indicators of environmental change and serve as models for research on mimicry and genetics. They have been central to the development of coevolutionary hypotheses, such as butterflies with flowering plants and moths’ evolutionary arms race with echolocating bats. However, these hypotheses have not been rigorously tested, because a robust lepidopteran phylogeny and timing of evolutionary novelties are lacking. To address these issues, we inferred a comprehensive phylogeny of Lepidoptera, using the largest dataset assembled for the order (2,098 orthologous protein-coding genes from transcriptomes of 186 species, representing nearly all superfamilies), and dated it with carefully evaluated synapomorphy-based fossils. The oldest members of the Lepidoptera crown group appeared in the Late Carboniferous (∼300 Ma) and fed on nonvascular land plants. Lepidoptera evolved the tube-like proboscis in the Middle Triassic (∼241 Ma), which allowed them to acquire nectar from flowering plants. This morphological innovation, along with other traits, likely promoted the extraordinary diversification of superfamily-level lepidopteran crown groups. The ancestor of butterflies was likely nocturnal, and our results indicate that butterflies became day-flying in the Late Cretaceous (∼98 Ma). Moth hearing organs arose multiple times before the evolutionary arms race between moths and bats, perhaps initially detecting a wide range of sound frequencies before being co-opted to specifically detect bat sonar. Our study provides an essential framework for future comparative studies on butterfly and moth evolution.
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Aralimarad, Prabhuraj, Andy M. Reynolds, Ka S. Lim, Don R. Reynolds, and Jason W. Chapman. "Flight altitude selection increases orientation performance in high-flying nocturnal insect migrants." Animal Behaviour 82, no. 6 (2011): 1221–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.09.013.
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HEINRICH, BERND. "Thermoregulation by Winter-Flying Endothermic Moths." Journal of Experimental Biology 127, no. 1 (1987): 313–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.127.1.313.
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Noctuid moths of the subfamily Cuculiinae fly in any month of the winter in the north-eastern United States when air temperatures are at least 0°C. At lower temperatures they hide under leaf litter rather than perching on trees like many summer-flying noctuid moths. Like moths of similar mass and wing-loading that fly in the summer or that reside in tropical regions, the nocturnal cuculinids fly with a thoracic temperature of 30–35°C. The generation and maintenance of such high thoracic temperatures at low air temperatures depends on (1) the ability to begin shivering at very low muscle temperatures, (2) a thick insulating pile, and (3) counter-current heat exchangers that retard heat flow to the head and to the abdomen, respectively.
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Nievergelt, F., F. Liechti, and B. Bruderer. "Migratory directions of free-flying birds versus orientation in registration cages." Journal of Experimental Biology 202, no. 16 (1999): 2225–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.202.16.2225.
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Good conditions for migration may promote offshore flights in nocturnal autumn migrants at the northern border of the Mediterranean Sea, whereas unfavourable conditions may induce flights along the coast. These predictions were tested by performing orientation cage experiments and making simultaneous observations of free-flying birds using a tracking radar. The flight directions of free-flying birds were mainly towards southwest and did not differ between overcast and clear sky conditions. The caged birds, however, tended towards southwest under clear sky and showed a more scattered distribution in the southwest and southeast quadrants under overcast conditions. Similar directional scatter occurred when the cage experiments were performed late at night. In contrast, free-flying birds shifted their flight direction towards west as night progressed to avoid flights across the sea. Flight directions observed by radar shifted slightly towards west as the season progressed owing to more frequent southeasterly winds. In orientation cages, however, directional preference was scattered towards southwest and southeast in the early migratory season and became unimodal (southwest) at the peak of the season; this change was not caused by different species composition. Consequently, there is a general coincidence of flight directions and directional preferences in orientation cages, but interpretations of results from orientation cages must allow for the possibility that experimental directions are different from migratory directions of free-flying birds, particularly under suboptimal migratory conditions.
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Reynolds, Andy M., Don R. Reynolds, Alan D. Smith, and Jason W. Chapman. "Orientation Cues for High-Flying Nocturnal Insect Migrants: Do Turbulence-Induced Temperature and Velocity Fluctuations Indicate the Mean Wind Flow?" PLoS ONE 5, no. 12 (2010): e15758. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015758.
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Molleman, Freerk, Sridhar Halali, and Ullasa Kodandaramaiah. "Brief Mating Behavior at Dawn and Dusk and Long Nocturnal Matings in the Butterfly Melanitis leda." Journal of Insect Behavior 33, no. 2-4 (2020): 138–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10905-020-09753-x.
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Abstract Information on the mating system of an insect species is necessary to gain insight into sexual selection and population structure. Male territoriality of the common evening brown butterfly Melanitis leda has been studied in the wild, but other aspects of its mating system remain largely unknown. For a population of M. leda in South India, we observed male-male and male-female interactions in captivity, measured mating duration and spermatophore mass, and also determined the degree of polyandry in the wild. We found that mating behavior takes place for short periods of time around dawn and dusk. Our observations corroborate that males compete in aerial combats (twirling) and interfere with mating pairs. In the morning, they may use shivering to warm up. Females can twirl with males and refuse mating by pointing their abdomens upwards or by flying away. Males court females by fluttering their wings while perched behind females, and then initiate copulation by curling their abdomens ca. 180 degrees sideways to make genital contact. While in the morning, matings lasted on average one hour and twenty-three minutes and never exceeded three hours, in the evening, matings could be of similar duration, but 42% of butterflies only separated when dawn was approaching. However, such long nocturnal matings did not result in heavier spermatophores. The first spermatophore of a male tended to be larger than subsequent spermatophores. Together with previous studies on this species, our findings suggest that males compete mainly through territorial defense (as reported before), courtship performance, and interference, and to a lesser extent by providing spermatophores, while females exert some control over the mating system by the timing of their receptivity and mate choice.
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Bruderer, B., D. Peter, and T. Steuri. "Behaviour of migrating birds exposed to X-band radar and a bright light beam." Journal of Experimental Biology 202, no. 9 (1999): 1015–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.202.9.1015.
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Radar studies on bird migration assume that the transmitted electromagnetic pulses do not alter the behaviour of the birds, in spite of some worrying reports of observed disturbance. This paper shows that, in the case of the X-band radar ‘Superfledermaus’, no relevant changes in flight behaviour occurred, while a strong light beam provoked important changes. Large sets of routine recordings of nocturnal bird migrants obtained using an X-band tracking radar provided no indication of differing flight behaviour between birds flying at low levels towards the radar, away from it or passing it sideways. Switching the radar transmission on and off, while continuing to track selected bird targets using a passive infrared camera during the switch-off phases of the radar, showed no difference in the birds' behaviour with and without incident radar waves. Tracking single nocturnal migrants while switching on and off a strong searchlight mounted parallel to the radar antenna, however, induced pronounced reactions by the birds: (1) a wide variation of directional shifts averaging 8 degrees in the first and 15 degrees in the third 10 s interval after switch-on; (2) a mean reduction in flight speed of 2–3 m s-1 (15–30 % of normal air speed); and (3) a slight increase in climbing rate. A calculated index of change declined with distance from the source, suggesting zero reaction beyond approximately 1 km. These results revive existing ideas of using light beams on aircraft to prevent bird strikes and provide arguments against the increasing use of light beams for advertising purposes.
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Bäckman, Johan, and Thomas Alerstam. "Harmonic oscillatory orientation relative to the wind in nocturnal roosting flights of the swift Apus apus." Journal of Experimental Biology 205, no. 7 (2002): 905–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.205.7.905.
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SUMMARY Swifts regularly spend the night flying at high altitude. From previous studies based on tracking radar observations, we know that they stay airborne during the night and prefer to orient themselves into the wind direction with an increased angular concentration with increasing wind speed. In this study,we investigated the orientation relative to the wind of individual swifts by frequency (discrete Fourier transform) and autocorrelation analysis based on time series (10s intervals) of the angle between the swifts' heading and the wind direction for radar trackings of long duration (9-60 min). The swifts often showed a significant harmonic oscillation of their heading direction relative to the wind, with a frequency mostly in the range 1-17 mHz,corresponding to cycle periods of 1-16 min. The swifts also sometimes performed circling flights at low wind speeds. Wind speed ranged from 1.3 to 14.8 m s-1, and we expected to find different patterns of orientation at different wind speeds, assuming that the swifts adapt their orientation to avoid substantial displacement during their nocturnal flights. However, oscillatory orientation was found at all wind speeds with variable frequencies/periods that did not show any consistent relationship with wind speed. It remains to be shown whether cyclic heading changes are a regular feature of bird orientation.
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Riley, J. R., N. J. Armes, D. R. Reynolds, and A. D. Smith. "Nocturnal observations on the emergence and flight behaviour of Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in the post-rainy season in central India." Bulletin of Entomological Research 82, no. 2 (1992): 243–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0007485300051798.
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AbstractA range of techniques was used to quantify the nocturnal flight behaviour of Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) in pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) crops near Hyderabad, in central India. These included visual observations in the field, the use of field cages and a vehicle-mounted net, optical and video imaging in the infra-red, and radar. Moth emergence from the soil was observed to start at dusk and recruitment continued steadily throughout the first half of the night. Little activity was observed in moths on the night of emergence, except for weak flying or crawling to daytime refuges. Flight activity of one-day old moths started about 20 min after sunset, peaked 15 min later and within about an hour of sunset had declined to a low level which persisted for the rest of the night. Flight of reproductively mature moths was most frequent about 1 h after sunset and at this time mainly comprised females searching for oviposition sites and nectar sources. By about 2 h after sunset, flight had decreased markedly, but there was a slight increase in activity in the second half of the night caused by males undertaking mate-finding flights. Under the conditions studied, the majority of H. armigera dispersed below 10 m, and there were no mass ascents to higher altitudes like those observed at outbreak sites of the African armyworm, Spodoptera exempta (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). The contrasting migratory strategies of H. armigera and S. exempta are briefly discussed.
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Winter, Y. "Flight speed and body mass of nectar-feeding bats (Glossophaginae) during foraging." Journal of Experimental Biology 202, no. 14 (1999): 1917–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.202.14.1917.
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Aerodynamic theory predicts that minimum power (Vmp) and maximum range (Vmr) flight speeds increase when the body mass of an individual animal increases. To evaluate whether foraging bats regulate their flight speed within a fixed speed category relative to Vmp or Vmr, I investigated how the natural daily changes in body mass caused by feeding affected the flight speed of neotropical nectar-feeding bats (Phyllostomidae: Glossophaginae) within a strictly defined, stereotyped behavioural context. Individual bats were maintained in a flight tunnel (lengths of five different types 14–50 m) with a fully automated feeding, weighing (using an electronic balance at the roost) and flight speed measuring system. Flight speeds were measured during normal nocturnal foraging activity by an undisturbed bat while it flew between the two ends of the flight tunnel to obtain food from two computer-controlled nectar-feeders. For a comparison of flight enclosure measurements with field data, flight speeds were also obtained from unrestrained bats foraging in their natural environment (Costa Rica). Foraging flight speeds spanned a range of at least a factor 3 within a single species, which demonstrates the wide range of speeds possible to these animals. Significant, positive correlations between flight speed and the natural individual variability in body mass were found in nearly all cases, with body mass exponents ranging between 0.44 and 2.1. Bats flying at normal speeds were therefore not near their upper limit of muscle power. The most reliable measurements of speed increase with mass (with individual mass changes of up to 30%) were close to the increase theoretically predicted for Vmp and Vmr for an individual bat (with constant wing span and area), which should vary as M0.42, where M is mass. This provides evidence that the glossophagine bats attemped to maintain their flight speed within a fixed speed category relative to Vmp or Vmr during foraging. Among differently sized species of glossophagine bat (N=4), flight speeds V varied with V=20M0.23, in agreement with the mass exponent of 0.21 expected from aerodynamic models for interspecific variation. In addition to the mass effect, at least five other variables significantly influenced flight speed. (1) Both mean and maximum flight speeds increased with the length and the cross-sectional area of the flight tunnel. Mean (maximum) flight speeds of 11–12 g Glossophaga soricina bats (in m s-1) were 4.6 (5.3) over a 7 m and 7. 3 (10.5) over a 50 m flight path. (2) The flight speed range adopted by a bat during one night could vary significantly between nights, independently of body mass and the effect of the size of the flight enclosure. (3) Bats flew significantly faster under illumination than in darkness. This effect was shown (i) by bats kept under natural ambient illumination that initiated foraging during the twilight phase of the evening, (ii) when bats continued to feed into the light phase directly after the dark-light transition in the laboratory and (iii) during foraging under constant, artificial illumination. (4) After a period of rest, the initial flight speed during a foraging bout was significantly increased by 25%, but declined to the mean level within 20 s of activity. (5) Flight speed could differ significantly between foraging (flight from feeder to feeder) versus non-foraging (flight from end to end of the enclosure without visiting the feeders) flights. The results of this study demonstrate a clear ability of bats to regulate their flight speed in response to small natural changes in body mass as predicted by aerodynamic theory for Vmp and Vmr. The set point in flight speed regulation, however, was influenced by multiple additional variables.
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"Nocturnal grasshopper migration in West Africa: transport and concentration by the wind, and the implications for air-to-air control." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences 328, no. 1251 (1990): 655–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1990.0134.
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During radar observations of the migratory flight of Oedaleus senegalensis and of other grasshoppers in West Africa, we have observed that nocturnally flying insects are sometimes concentrated by mesoscale zones of wind convergence. The concentrations were typically 1.2-2.0 km wide, often more than 20 km long, and were similar to those observed elsewhere. The convergence zones appeared to be usually caused by atmospheric gravity currents. Some of these currents were cold air outflows from rain storms, and others were possibly of katabatic origin. Occasionally zones may also have been caused by bores and gravity waves set off by these currents. In this paper, we investigate the practicability of controlling populations of sahelian grasshoppers by the air-to-air spraying of insecticide onto such concentrations of insects. Using our data on concentration in convergence zones and a rudimentary model of zone distribution and behaviour, we estimate that less than 30% of the flying population of grasshoppers would be entrained in convergence zones, and that effective search for the concentrations might require the simultaneous use of at least two aircraft per 500 km square. These results imply that strategic control by air-to-air spraying is unlikely to be practicable. It is necessary to emphasize, however, that the evidence on which this deduction is based is fragmentary. A much more definitive conclusion could be expected from the results of further research with an aircraft equipped with a windfinding system and a radar able to measure and delineate insect concentrations.
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Mata, Vanessa A., Sónia Ferreira, Rebeca M. Campos, et al. "Efficient assessment of nocturnal flying insect communities by combining automatic light traps and DNA metabarcoding." Environmental DNA, August 30, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/edn3.125.
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Borshagovski, Anna-Maria, Paulus Saari, Topi K. Lehtonen, and Arja Kaitala. "When night never falls: female sexual signalling in a nocturnal insect along a latitudinal gradient." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 74, no. 12 (2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02927-9.
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Abstract The environment can play an important role in animal communication by affecting signal transmission and detection. Variation in the signalling environment is expected to be especially pronounced in widely distributed species, potentially affecting how their signals are detected. Such environmental variability is presumably relevant for sedentary females of a nocturnal capital breeder, the European common glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca), which produce green light during the night to attract flying males to mate. Being widely distributed in Europe, glow-worm populations are exposed to both rapidly descending, darker summer nights in the south, and slowly dimming, brighter summer nights further north, with the latter potentially posing challenges to the visibility of the female glow. To test how female signalling is affected by latitude, we sampled glowing females during summer nights along a latitudinal gradient in Finland, Northern Europe, and used a novel apparatus to measure the intensity and peak wavelength (hue/colour) of their glow. Surprisingly, females at higher latitudes, similar to those at lower latitudes, were commonly glowing during the brightest (and hence the shortest) nights of the year. Females also glowed brighter in more northern areas, partly due to their larger body size, whereas the colour of their glow was not associated with latitude. Since females glow even during midsummer, independent of latitude, the increase in glow intensity at higher latitudes presumably serves to maintain signal visibility in brighter signalling conditions. Overall, these findings highlight the influence of environmental conditions on the evolution of sexual signals, especially in the context of species distribution range. Significance statement When environmental conditions impact signal transmission and perception, local conditions can have a crucial role in shaping animal communication and signal evolution. To analyse how dark-dependant common glow-worm females cope with variable nocturnal light environments, we used a novel apparatus, presumably not applied to living animals before, to measure female glow intensity at various latitudes along a latitudinal gradient. Interestingly, females did not avoid signalling during the brightest summer nights, but instead, their glow intensity and body size both increased with latitude. These findings suggest that females can ensure visibility to mate-searching males over a range of local conditions. Our study therefore shows how females can adapt to environmental constraints on signal visibility, and how the expression of sexual signals is shaped not only by social interactions but also by the signalling environment.