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Orientation at Night by High-Flying Insects

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Insect Flight

Part of the book series: Proceedings in Life Sciences ((LIFE SCIENCES))

Abstract

The substance of this paper deals with one striking feature of insect migration — common orientation at night by larger-sized (30–2000 mg), high-flying insects. This phenomenon was unsuspected before it was made dramatically obvious by the fortuitous sensitivity of simple scanning radars to non-random orientation in populations of airborne insects (Schaefer 1969). Since then, common orientation has been widely observed in many radar studies (J. Roffey, personal communication 1972; Riley 1975; Schaefer 1976; Reid et al. 1979; Riley and Reynolds 1979,1983; W.W. Wolf, personal communication 1980; Greenbank et al. 1980; Drake et al. 1981; Drake 1983, 1984) and it appears to be a very common feature of nocturnal migratory flight. All authors agree that orientation occurs in both the presence and absence of moonlight.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TDRI Radar Unit, RSRE Leigh Sinton Road, Malvern, Worcs, WR14 1LL, UK

    J. R. Riley & D. R. Reynolds

Authors
  1. J. R. Riley
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  2. D. R. Reynolds
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, The University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    Wijesiri Danthanarayana

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Riley, J.R., Reynolds, D.R. (1986). Orientation at Night by High-Flying Insects. In: Danthanarayana, W. (eds) Insect Flight. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71155-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71155-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-71157-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-71155-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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