Abstract
With increasing habitat fragmentation and isolation, the cost for an individual to disperse from its natal population is predicted to increase. This may select for more efficient flight and search behaviuor in populations in fragmented landscapes. I will test this prediction on a butterfly species, the speckled wood butterfly Pararge aegeria. Butterflies originating from contunuous forest landscapes and fragmented agricultural landscapes will be reared in the lab and thier offspring will be released in the wild to studiy their dispersal behaviour. I will track released butterflies when moving through the landscape "matrix" and when approaching habitat and analyse flight velocity, turning angles and perceptual range with respect to landscape of origin. I will also use artificial "habitat silhouettes" to test whether butterflies from the two landscape types differ in the cues they use to locate habitat. The outcome of my experiment will be used to construct a predictive model of butterfly movement behaviour in response to landscape structure. This model may provide information on both population persistence and the potential of range expansion in response to climate change.
Sweden