跟踪蜻蜓---来自sciencnow的报道

最近的一期sciencenow报道了一篇关于蜻蜓迁徙的研究，据说是第一次相关研究，感觉蛮有意思，翻译过来，以飨大家，不到之处，还望指正，谢谢
Follow That Dragonfly!
By Laura Blackburn
ScienceNOW Daily News
11 May 2006

By slapping tiny radio transmitters to the undersides of dragonflies, scientists have been able to track the movements of the migrating insects for the first time. The strategy reveals that dragonflies have very similar migration patterns to small songbirds in terms of the route they take and when they fly.
Green darner dragonflies (Anax junius), migrate south from the northeastern United States every autumn; some travel as far as Florida. Although much is known about how birds migrate, insect migration is more mysterious, says ecologist Martin Wikelski of Princeton University in New Jersey. Knowing more about this behavior can help conservationists preserve common stopover sites and migration routes.

科学家们通过在蜻蜓的腹侧装上微小无线电发射器，第一次能够跟踪这种迁徙昆虫的活动。研究发现蜻蜓的迁徙方式同其他的小鸣禽相比，无论是迁徙路线还是时间，都是十分相识。
绿纹蜻蜓每年秋季从美国东北部迁徙至南方，有些可以迁至佛罗里达。新泽西普林斯顿大学生态学家Martin Wikelski说，虽然对于鸟类迁徙我们已经知道很多，但是昆虫迁徙仍然知之甚少。对这种行为的进一步了解有助于保护者们对一些中途停留地和迁徙路线进行保护。

Wikelski and his colleagues captured 14 dragonflies at the start of their autumn migration in New Jersey and stuck 0.3 gram radio transmitters to their bellies. The extra weight was no problem for the 1.2 gram insects as they were tracked for up to 12 days by teams on the ground and in the air, using light aircraft. Like songbirds, dragonflies had stopovers to refuel, taking flight only every third day. They also avoided strong winds, much as songbirds do: The dragonflies flew about 12 kilometres a day, but delayed take-off if the wind was blowing more than 25 kilometres an hour. And, like songbirds, if the dragonflies hit the ocean, they turned and headed down the coast.

在新泽西，Wikelski和他的同事们在蜻蜓秋季迁徙前抓捕了14只蜻蜓，并在它们身上安装了0.3g的无线电发射器。相对于这些昆虫1.2g的体重来说，这些额外重量不会造成什么影响，这些昆虫在12天里，无论是在地上还是天上都将被跟踪。同鸣禽一样，蜻蜓中途会停留以补充能量，每三天飞行一次。它们也会躲避强风。每天大概飞行12千米，但是如果遇到超过25千米/小时的风它们就会推迟行动。同样同鸣禽一样，遇到海洋，它们就会掉头沿着海岸线前行。

There's potential for even longer-distance tracking, because signals from the transmitters can be picked up by satellites. Ultimately, says Wikelski, migrating insects could be tracked in this way, as birds already are. The team publishes its results online today in Biology Letters

Wikelski说如果应用卫星监测信号的话，跟踪路程会更长一些，而事实上应该这么做，因为跟踪鸟类就是如此。研究小组已经将他们的研究结果发表在今天的Biology Letters上。

This is a very powerful technique for tracking individual insects", says entomologist Jason Chapman of Rothamstead Research in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. Dragonflies, like birds, have keen eyesight and fly during the day, so it's not surprising that both migrate in a similar way, he says.

英国赫特福德郡Rothamstead研究所的昆虫学家Jason Chapman说：“这是一项有重要意义的跟踪昆虫的技术。”他也认为，蜻蜓同鸟一样是靠目视并且白天飞行，所以它们的迁徙方式相似也就不足为奇了。