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6XEIDPLO\ 1\PSKDOLQDH billion. Now to be more realistic if only one egg was laid 7KH *OREDO &LWL]HQ 6FLHQFH 3URJUDP

on every two leaves (and not two thousands) it will finally
produce one adult (because of shortage in food supply)
we will get 225 million adults from one hill in the Northern
Negev!.
3.4 - By the end of March all the Malvas were defoliated
#
(illustr. 14) losing about half a billion leaves to the hungry
larvae and by mid-April the biotope was practically without Website: www.butterflymigration.org
adults. At this biotope the loss to four types of parasitoids
(det. Mark Shaw) was estimated to be ~ 5% that reduced - The program was initiated in 2018 by Gerard Talavera and
the size of the swarm to “only” 213 million adults. Roger Vila with students and members of their research
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 10 - B | 21-12-30 | 11:34:48 | SR:-- | Magenta
labs at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC)
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 10 - B | 21-12-30 | 11:34:48 | SR:-- | Yellow
#21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 10 - B | 21-12-30 | 11:34:48 | SR:-- | Black
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 10 - B | 21-12-30 | 11:34:48 | SR:-- | Cyan
1HZ WHFKQLTXHV RI WUDFLQJ RULJLQ RI PLJUDQWV using and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF)
natural hydrogen isotope ²H (Deuterium) in adult’s wings in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain), thanks to a National
and pollen on their bodies (Talavera, 2018; Suchan el Geographic grant.
al., 2018) should be implemented for the Levant’s cardui - The main goal of the program is “to establish a global
migrants. The first several hundreds dry specimens of network of monitoring sites to report temporal presence/
migrating cardui that were collected during spring-summer absence of V. cardui, both for breeding and adults. To have
2019 huge cardui migration and sent to Barcelona at as many people and countries involved as possible. To run
the beginning of the cardui citizen science program to rather simple and non-demanding tasks near their houses,
investigate their origins using the mentioned techniques like visiting hostplant plots to count for possible presence/
may confirm the hypothesis of potential origins “in parts absence of caterpillars and/or to climb a little hill to report
of the Middle East and Arabia” (Talavera pers. comm. to presence/absence of butterflies hilltopping. These tasks
DB), while two Painted Ladies collected by DB N Marsa should regularly be done once every two weeks.”
Alam, E Egypt in the Red Sea W coast on 23-25 March - Until the beginning of the corona shut-down, the citizen
2016, originated from the horn of Africa (Somaliland – science program received about 2500 specimens from
Djibouti) and Arabia (Talavera et al., 2018). around 20 countries, but have got >8000 specimens in
their collection.
Cardui VZDUP QLJKW PLJUDWLRQ (Benyamini & Ro’e, 2019). - During the corona plague the number of observers
At mid-night between 31 March to 1 April 2019 Yocheved decreased and the program mostly missed spring 2020,
Ro’e (66) a retired teacher and member of Jordan River but most of the monitoring sites were able to continue.
springs valley butterfly monitoring community was driving - As they started to come out of the corona crisis they
her Mazda 3 home eastwards along the Yarmouk River continued with other funding in their labs, getting a new
when she entered a swarm of migrating cardui. They grants to promote the program at longer term, and will
were flying westwards against and over her car one to two do important implementations in a website platform, the
meters above ground, some collided with her car leaving phone APP, and will try to increase the contacts in many
yellow-orange patches (Mid-night temp. accrd, IMS was countries to implement new permanent monitoring sites.
9°C). Arriving home at Nov S Golan Heights, she wrote this - They are moving forward towards incorporating other
record in her diary (she did not photograph the butterflies). species too. For example they include 50 species in their
On the 2nd of April at 19:30 early evening driving on the mobile app: http://www.butterflymigration.org/app.html
Golan Heights road 98 southwards between Tel Saki and - Finally the organizers highlight that this is not another
Ramat Magshimim she observed migrants again but monitoring program like others that already exist, but they
this time these were singletons flying every 100 to 500 are focusing here in three novelties: 1) breeding data (to
m northwards against her car. She thought that people study where and when the species breed to account for
will not believe her and on the 3rd of April took her son reproductive habitat, since adults could just be on the
Ariel with her. And indeed driving southwards from Nov at move, 2) They put special emphasis in the importance of
20:30 passing Kfar Haruv they saw again the butterflies reporting absence data, and 3) They promote monitoring
flying about two meters above ground. On the 5th of April permanent breeding sites and hilltops.
Yocheved and her son joined DB to show him the places
of the night migration. We stopped S of Kfar Haruv and A big advantage of this program is that by collecting
Ariel showed him the direction of the cardui migrants; simple and easy-to-get records of presence – absence
they were coming from South-East (the Yarmouk River) larvae (breeding sites) and adults across many countries
and proceeded to North-West, again singletons every 100- and seasons they open the door to analyse hundreds of
200 meters. From the peak swarm of the first night the records, produce monthly maps of suitable reproductive
migration dwindled quickly and disappeared after three habitats, and therefore trace migratory movements -
more nights. The easterly direction where they came from presented by Menchetti, Guéguen & Talavera in their
suggesting Jebel Hauran (The Druze Mountain) at the break-through research paper in proceedings of The Royal
fare SE of the Golan Heights and the Syrian Desert as Society (2019), entitled “Spatio-temporal ecological niche
their source. Appendix I in Benyamini 2017d present only modelling of multigenerational insect migrations”.
four observations of easterly origin of cardui migrations
westwards: Nahal Hiyon (N Israel) 10.3.1988; Hermon A special & thorough paragraph on Butterfly Migration in Vol
I by Uri Pick & Dubi Benyamini will deal with the historical
18.2.2005; Nahal Hemar (S Judean Desert) 5.3.2005 and
© Moti Dolev Arad (NE Negev) 2010. 1988, 2005 & 2010 were years of records in the Levant, the theory of butterfly migration and
the latest discoveries of solving this complex phenomenon.
great cardui migrations.

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