Jason W Chapman

University of Exeter | UoE · Department of Biosciences

Effective conservation of migratory species relies on habitat protection throughout their annual cycle. Although protected areas (PAs) play a central role in conservation, their effectiveness at conserving habitats across the annual cycle of migratory species has rarely been assessed. We developed seasonal ecological niche models for 418 migratory...

Invasive insects threaten ecosystem stability, public health, and food security. Documenting newly invasive species and understanding how they reach into new territories, establish populations, and interact with other species remain vitally important. Here, we report on the invasion of the South American leafhopper, Curtara insularis into Africa, w...

The East Asian Insect Flyway is a globally important migration route stretching from the Indochina Peninsula and the Philippines through East China to Northeast China and northern Japan, although most migrants utilize only part of the flyway. In this review, we focus on long-range windborne migrations of lepidopteran and planthopper pests. We outli...

Striking a trade-off between migration and reproduction becomes imperative during long-range migration to ensure proper energy allocation. However, the mechanisms involved in this trade-off remain poorly understood. Here, we used a takeoff assay to distinguish migratory from non-migratory individuals in the fall armyworm, which is a major migratory...

Weather radars are increasingly used to study the spatial-temporal dynamics of airborne birds and insects. These two taxa often co-occur and separating their contributions remains a major analytical challenge. Most studies have restricted analyses to locations, seasons, and periods when one or the other taxa dominates. In this study, we describe an...

In autumn 1950 David and Elizabeth Lack chanced upon a huge migration of insects and birds flying through the Pyrenean Pass of Bujaruelo, from France into Spain, later describing the spectacle as combining both grandeur and novelty. The intervening years have seen many changes to land use and climate, posing the question as to the current status of...

Invasive insects threaten ecosystem stability, public health, and food security. Documenting newly invasive species and understanding how they reach into new territories, establish populations, and interact with other species remain vitally important. Here, we report on the invasion of the South American leafhopper, Curtara insularis into Africa, w...

Radar networks hold great promise for monitoring population trends of migrating insects. However, it is important to elucidate the nature of responses to environmental cues. We use data from a mini-network of vertical-looking entomological radars in the southern UK to investigate changes in nightly abundance, flight altitude and behaviour of insect...

Many insects depend on high-altitude, migratory movements during part of their life cycle. The daily timing of these migratory movements is not random, e.g. many insect species show peak migratory flight activity at dawn, noon or dusk. These insects provide essential ecosystem services such as pollination but also contribute to crop damage. Quantif...

Long-distance migrations of insects contribute to ecosystem functioning but also have important economic impacts when the migrants are pests or provide ecosystem services. We combined radar monitoring, aerial sampling, and searchlight trapping, to quantify the annual pattern of nocturnal insect migration above the densely populated agricultural lan...

The iconic European stag beetle (Lucanus cervus) (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) is one of the largest terrestrial beetles in Europe. Due to decreasing population numbers, thought to be a consequence of habitat loss, this beetle has become a near-threatened species across much of Europe, and a reliable monitoring system is required to measure its future po...

The cover image is based on the Research Article Physiological and behavioral basis of diamondback moth Plutella xylostella migration and its association with heat stress by Fan Yang et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.7904 . image

BACKGROUND Migration is a strategy that shifts insects to more favorable habitats in response to deteriorating local environmental conditions. The ecological factors that govern insect migration are poorly understood for many species. Plutella xylostella causes great losses in Brassica vegetable and oilseed crops, and undergoes mass migration. Howe...

Many species of insects undertake long-range, seasonally reversed migrations, displaying sophisticated orientation behaviors to optimize their migratory trajectories. However, when invasive insects arrive in new biogeographical regions, it is unclear if migrants retain (or how quickly they regain) ancestral migratory traits, such as seasonally pref...

High altitude mountain passes in the Pyrenees are known to be important migratory hotspots for autumn migrating insects originating from large swathes of northern Europe. In the Pyrenees, prior research has focused on diurnal migratory insects. In this study, we investigate the nocturnal component of the migratory assemblage and ask if this transie...

Migration is costly in terms of increased energy expenditure and exposure to risks encountered en route . These factors can lead to a higher mortality among migrants compared with more sedentary life history stages. Insect migrants are incredibly numerous, but as they are less conspicuous than vertebrate migrants and as migration often occurs at hi...

In 1950 David and Elizabeth Lack chanced upon a huge migration of insects and birds flying through the Pyrenean Pass of Bujaruelo, later describing the spectacle as combining both grandeur with novelty. The intervening years have seen many changes to land use and climate, posing the question as to the current status of this migratory phenomenon, wh...

Numerous insects including pests and beneficial species undertake windborne migrations over hundreds of kilometers. In East Asia, climate-induced changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation systems are affecting wind-fields and precipitation zones and these, in turn, are changing migration patterns. We examined the consequences in a serious rice...

Background In warm regions or seasons of the year, the planetary boundary layer is occupied by a huge variety and quantity of insects, but the southward migration of insects (in East Asia) in autumn is still poorly understood. Methods We collated daily catches of the oriental armyworm ( Mythimna separata ) moth from 20 searchlight traps from 2014...

Effective conservation of migratory species relies on protection throughout their annual cycle ¹ , something that has not been assessed globally for migratory insects. Here, we develop seasonal ecological niche models for 405 migratory butterfly species globally to assess whether they are adequately covered by protected areas (PAs) across their ful...

Effective conservation of migratory species relies on protection throughout their annual cycle, something that has not been assessed globally for migratory insects. Here, we develop seasonal ecological niche models for 405 migratory butterfly species globally to assess whether they are adequately covered by protected areas (PAs) across their full a...

Each year, billions of birds migrate across the globe, and interpretation of weather radar signals is increasingly being used to document the spatial and temporal migration patterns in Europe and America. Such approaches are yet to be applied in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), one of the most species-rich and threatened flyways in the wo...

Recent studies have reported Anopheles mosquitoes captured at high-altitude (40–290 m above ground) in the Sahel. Here, we describe this migration modality across genera and species of African Culicidae and examine its implications for disease transmission and control. As well as Anopheles , six other genera— Culex, Aedes, Mansonia, Mimomyia, Lutzi...

Recent studies have reported Anopheles mosquitoes captured at high altitude (40-290 m above ground) in the Sahel. Here, we describe this migration modality across genera and species of African Culicidae and examine its implications for disease transmission and control. As well as Anopheles, six other genera-Culex, Aedes, Mansonia, Mimomiya, Lutzia,...

Migratory insects are a key component of terrestrial ecosystems, but understanding their full contribution is challenging as they are difficult to track, and migration often takes place at high altitude. Migration hotspots offer an exceptional opportunity to study these otherwise indiscernible movements as migration can be visible at ground level;...

Each year, trillions of insects make long-range seasonal migrations. These movements are relatively well understood at a population level, but how individual insects achieve them remains elusive. Behavioral responses to conditions en route are little studied, primarily owing to the challenges of tracking individual insects. Using a light aircraft a...

Insects are capable of extraordinary feats of long‐distance movement that have profound impacts on the function of terrestrial ecosystems. The ability to undertake these movements arose multiple times through the evolution of a suite of traits that make up the migratory syndrome, however the underlying genetic pathways involved remain poorly unders...

Abstract Contemporary analyses of insect population trends are based, for the most part, on a large body of heterogeneous and short‐term datasets of diurnal species that are representative of limited spatial domains. This makes monitoring changes in insect biomass and biodiversity difficult. What is needed is a method for monitoring that provides a...

López-Mañas et al. (1) raise concerns about our recent paper (2) documenting environmental drivers of annual variation in the abundance of immigrant painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) reaching southern Europe each spring. We address their concerns, and further suggest that the rationale behind their critique is predicated upon unrealistic assumptions.

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), is capable of long-distance migration; thus, evaluation of its flight capability is relevant to the design of monitoring and control strategies for this pest. Previous studies have quantified the flight ability of lab-reared populations under controlled conditions, but less is known about the...

Weather radar networks have great potential for continuous and long-term monitoring of aerial biodiversity of birds, bats, and insects. Biological data from weather radars can support ecological research, inform conservation policy development and implementation, and increase the public’s interest in natural phenomena such as migration. Weather rad...

The sun is the most reliable celestial cue for orientation available to daytime migrants. It is widely assumed that diurnal migratory insects use a ‘time-compensated sun compass’ to adjust for the changing position of the sun throughout the day, as demonstrated in some butterfly species. The mechanisms used by other groups of diurnal insect migrant...

In addition to sperm, some accessory substances transferred to females during copulation act as nuptial gifts by passing on valuable nutrients in many insect species. The nutritional status of the males can thus have a great effect on the mating behavior, fecundity and even the longevity of females. However, little is known about the effect of male...

Insect migration redistributes enormous quantities of biomass, nutrients and species globally. A subset of insect migrants perform extreme long-distance journeys, requiring specialized morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations. The migratory globe skimmer dragonfly (Pantala flavescens) is hypothesized to migrate from India across the...

Some species of psyllid (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) are known to make high-altitude windborne migrations, but compared with their sister superfamily, the Aphidoidea, our knowledge of these movements is rudimentary and unsystematised. Here we have extracted psyllid capture data from day and night aerial sampling carried out at a height of 200 m above gr...

Significance The painted lady butterfly is an annual migrant to northern regions, but the size of the immigration varies by more than 100-fold in successive years. Unlike the monarch, the painted lady breeds year round, and it has long been suspected that plant-growing conditions in winter-breeding locations drive this high annual variability. Howe...

Insect populations including butterflies are declining worldwide, and they are becoming an urgent conservation priority in many regions. Understanding which butterfly species migrate is critical to planning for their conservation, because management actions for migrants need to be coordinated across time and space. Yet, while migration appears to b...

Despite its deleterious impact on farming and agriculture, the physiology and energetics of insect migration is poorly understood due to our inability to track their individual movements in the field. Many insects, e.g. monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus (L.), are facultative migrants. Hence, it is important to establish whether specific insect...

Migratory connectivity describes the degree of linkage between different parts of an animal's migratory range due to the movement trajectories of individuals. High connectivity occurs when individuals from one particular part of the migratory range move almost exclusively to another localized part of the migratory range with little mixing with indi...

Long-distance migration of insects impacts food security, public health, and conservation–issues that are especially significant in Africa. Windborne migration is a key strategy enabling exploitation of ephemeral havens such as the Sahel, however, its knowledge remains sparse. In this first cross-season investigation (3 years) of the aerial fauna o...

Recently, the most serious upsurge of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) in the last 25 years is spreading across eastern Africa and southwestern Asia. Parts of the desert locust ‘invasion area’, namely the northern border areas of Pakistan and India, are very close to China, and whether locust swarms will invade China is of wide concern. To...

In migratory insects, increasing evidence has demonstrated juvenile hormone (JH) is involved in regulating adult reproduction and flight. Our previous study demonstrated that the switch from migrants to residents in Mythimna separata could be induced by adverse environmental conditions during a sensitive period in adulthood (the first day post-emer...

Oedaleus asiaticus is one of the dominant species of grasshoppers in the rangeland on the Mongolian plateau, and a serious pest, but its migratory behavior is poorly known. We investigated the take-off behavior of migratory O. asiaticus in field cages in the inner Mongolia region of northern China. The species shows a degree of density-dependent ph...

During seasonal changes around the globe, trillions of insects are on the move. Many insect populations, including butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and dragonflies, make repeated seasonal migrations each year. It is only during the past century that biologists have come to accept the concept of insect migration, and new research using radar, citizen...

Large migrating insects, flying at high altitude, often exhibit complex behaviour. They frequently elect to fly on winds with directions quite different from the prevailing direction, and they show a degree of common orientation , both of which facilitate transport in seasonally beneficial directions. Much less is known about the migration behaviou...

Recently, the most serious upsurge of desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) in last 25 years is spreading across eastern Africa and southwestern Asia. Parts of the desert locust 'invasion area', namely the northern border areas of Pakistan and India are very close to China, and whether locust swarms will invade China is of wide concern. To answer t...

Knowledge on long-distance migration of insects is especially important for food security, public health, and conservation-issues that are especially significant in Africa. During the wet season, the Sahel nourishes diverse life forms which are soon purged by the long dry season. Windborne migration is a key strategy enabling exploitation of such e...

Migratory insect pests pose a substantial challenge to global food security. These issues are particularly acute when pest incursions occur considerably beyond the expected range, through natural migration or human‐aided transport, because the lack of species‐specific control strategies and a potential absence of species‐specific natural enemies in...

Partial migration, where a proportion of a population migrates, while other individuals remain resident, is widespread across most migratory lineages. However, the mechanisms driving individual differences in migratory tendency are still relatively poorly understood in most taxa, but may be influenced by morphological, physiological, and behavioral...

Over the past two decades efforts to control malaria have halved the number of cases globally, yet burdens remain high in much of Africa and the elimination of malaria has not been achieved even in areas where extreme reductions have been sustained, such as South Africa 1,2. Studies seeking to understand the paradoxical persistence of malaria in ar...

Over the past two decades efforts to control malaria have halved the number of cases globally, yet burdens remain high in much of Africa and the elimination of malaria has not been achieved even in areas where extreme reductions have been sustained, such as South Africa1,2. Studies seeking to understand the paradoxical persistence of malaria in are...

BACKGROUND The fall armyworm (FAW), an invasive pest from the Americas, is rapidly spreading through the Old World, and has recently invaded the Indochinese Peninsula and southern China. In the Americas, FAW migrates from winter‐breeding areas in the south into summer‐breeding areas throughout North America where it is a major pest of corn. Asian p...

Despite the fact that migratory insects dominate aerial bioflows in terms of diversity, abundance, and biomass [1-6], the migration patterns of most species, and the effects of their annual fluxes between high- and low-latitude regions, are poorly known. One important group of long-range migrants that remain understudied is a suite of highly benefi...

BACKGROUND The fall armyworm (FAW), an invasive pest from the Americas, is rapidly spreading through the Old World, and has recently invaded the Indochinese Peninsula and southern China. In the Americas, FAW migrates from winter-breeding areas in the south into summer-breeding areas throughout North America where it is a major pest of corn. Asian p...

Rice planthoppers and associated virus diseases have become the most important pests threatening food security in China and other Asian countries, incurring costs of hundreds of millions of US dollars annually in rice losses, and in expensive, environmentally harmful, and often futile control efforts. The most economically damaging species, the bro...

Rice planthoppers (RPH) are the most serious insect pests of rice production in East Asia, frequently out-breaking in China, Korea and Japan each summer. They are unable to overwinter in temperate East Asia, and summer populations arise anew each year via northward spring migration from southeast Asia. The annual migration cycle is generally believ...

Quantitative radar studies are an important component of studying the movements of birds. Whether a bird, at a certain distance from the radar, is detected or not depends on its size. The volume monitored by the radar is therefore different for birds of different sizes. Consequently, an accurate quantification of bird movements recorded by small‐sc...

Many migratory species have experienced substantial declines that resulted from rapid and massive expansions of human structures and activities, habitat alterations and climate change. Migrants are also recognized as an integral component of biodiversity and provide a multitude of services and disservices that are relevant to human agriculture, eco...