Hilltopping Insects

[enewsguy]

I think your theory is bunk but you may be on the right path.  Since Insects
can not see far I doubt that the hill means much to them.  However hills
generate air currents and offer gradients of habitats as the get higher and
higher.  This may be a more interesting  path to follow.
David Wagner <dwagner at uconnvm.uconn.edu> wrote in message
news:01BF4B99.651F68E0.dwagner at uconnvm.uconn.edu...
> I am preparing a report for the Massachusetts Chapter of The Nature
> Conservancy on the significance of a summit in southwestern Massachusetts
> that is the highest point in the entire region.  I figured it made sense
to
> include a paragraph about the importance of hilltops as mating stations
for
> insects, especially for those that might otherwise rarely encounter one
> another.  I reproduce my account below.  There is an ample literature for
> butterflies (?but not moths), but would love to have citations for other
> orders.  Can anyone help with references for non-pompilid Hymenoptera?
Are
> there some benchmark papers on the subject?
>
> Draft Text:  "The Importance of Hilltops
>
> By virtue of the fact that Mount Everett is the tallest peak, as well as
> the most defined summit in the region, it may have special significance as
> a mating station for many insects. The highest point on the horizon--being
> the most reliable topographic features in virtually any habitat--is used
by
> many insects as a rendezvous site for courtship and mating (Shields 1967,
> Scott 1968, 1974, Thornhill and Alcock 1983, Britton 1995).  Scott noted
> (1968) that many rare butterflies, which otherwise might have difficulty
> locating one another, use summits of hills and mountains to initiate
mating
> behaviors.  Invertebrates known to hilltop include butterflies (especially
> papilionids, pierids, nymphalids, lycaenids, and hesperiids), Hymenoptera
> (e.g., pompilids), and flies (e.g., cuterebridae, gastrophilids, oestrids
> and sarcophagids)(Scott, 1968, 1974, Thornhill and Alcock 1983, Tarrier
> 1996, and Povolny and Znojil 1998).
>
> Because adults use vision to locate the highest point on the horizon, it
> makes sense that hilltopping behaviors would be poorly represented (if
> present at all) in the moths--the subjects of this study.  Future surveys
> should emphasize diurnal collections.  And because the most interesting
> organisms are apt to be rare, flight interception or malaise traps should
> be deployed at or very close to the summit."
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
>
> *************************
> David L. Wagner
> Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
> v. 860-486-2139; f. 860-486-6364
> dwagner at uconnvm.uconn.edu
>