Ocean-Crossing Dragonflies Discovered

grrlscientist writes "While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world."

Maldives

[spyder-implee]

I can think of worse places to study :)

Impressive...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

There just isn't much room for energy storage inside a dragonfly. They must have commendably efficient ways of staying in the air, presumably a combination of powered flight and exploitation of available air currents.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of them survive.

Name

[treeves]

Was it called the Globe Skimmer before his discovery? If so, it was quite a prescient name.

Re:Name

[Anonymous Coward]

... before HIS discovery...

As in the discovery that it flew so far.

Re:Impressive...

[cowboy76Spain]

Well... they are insects, so their strategy is usually based in numbers. Maybe only 1 in 5 dragonflies (warning, numbers made up) get to end the travel safely; that would be unacceptable for men or other animals that take years to mature but for insects could be reasonable.