Is there anything mysterious about the migration of butterflies?

Butterflies are the general name of the Lepidoptera suborder (also known as Butterfly suborder), which is the most beautiful group of insects. There are about 14, species in the world, most of which are in America and more than 1,3 in China. Butterflies can make long-distance migration and even cross the ocean in groups.

The mysterious flying butterfly According to the literature, Columbus, the navigator, was the first to find butterflies crossing the ocean. On his way around the world, he found thousands of butterflies flying from Europe to America. According to statistics, more than 2 species of butterflies have migrated and flown thousands of times all over the world.

The reason of butterfly migration

Some entomologists believe that the migration of insects is an instinctive behavior for species to escape from bad environmental conditions. It is related to genetic and environmental conditions. They believe that migration is a direct response of insects to adverse environmental conditions at that time, such as lack of food, dry weather, excessive reproduction, overcrowding and so on. For example, when the adult Pieris rapae emerges, if its parasitic plants can't provide it with a better food source, it will migrate to find the delicious food. On the contrary, if its parasitic plants can meet its needs, it will not move. In addition, the change of some environmental conditions affects the individual development of insects, which makes them develop into a migratory adult. They found that the differences in light period, temperature, population density and food conditions will cause obvious differentiation in physiology and flight ability of adults. This makes it possible for migratory butterflies to obtain physiological conditions.

The butterfly's "jet engine"

Why does a small butterfly, which is fragile, have great energy to fly over mountains and mountains and cross oceans, with a voyage of 3,-4, kilometers? Where does this energy come from? Because only from the dynamic point of view, butterflies can't fly that far. Scientists in the former Soviet Union believed that the advanced and energy-saving "jet engine principle" was used when butterflies moved. They used a high-speed camera to take pictures of the flight of the yellow butterfly. To their surprise, they found that the wings of this butterfly were stuck together for one third of the time during the flight. They skillfully use the opening and closing of their wings to make the front pair of wings form an air collector, and the back pair of wings form a leaky-headed air jet channel. Every time the butterfly flaps its wings, the size of the jet channel, the shape and length of the air inlet and air outlet, and the degree of contraction all change in an orderly manner. The air between the two wings is squeezed out from front to back due to the continuous flapping of the wings, forming a jet stream. Part of the energy of the jet stream is used to maintain the flying altitude, and the other part of the horizontal thrust generated by the jet stream is used to accelerate. Butterflies use this "jet engine principle" to cross the ocean.

butterfly's directional navigation

in the blue sky, what does the butterfly rely on to navigate directionally, overcome all kinds of bad weather and rush to its destination? In recent years, entomologist Baker has specially studied insect navigation. He found that long-distance (more than 2 kilometers) butterflies (such as butterflies) can adjust their course according to the daily change of the sun's azimuth. In other words, its flight direction is not always constant with the azimuth of the sun, but changes with the azimuth of the sun. This change is regulated by the biological clock in the body. If it flies towards the sun from 9: am to 1: am, it will fly with its back to the sun from 3: pm to 4: pm, but always keep its flight path close to a straight line so as to reach its destination in the shortest voyage. His research proves that butterflies navigate by the sun.