Migratory connectivity describes the degree of linkage between different parts of an animal’s migratory range due to the movement trajectories of individuals. High connectivity occurs when individuals from one particular part of the migratory range move almost exclusively to another localized part of the migratory range with little mixing with individuals from other regions. Conversely, low migratory connectivity describes the situation where individuals spread over a wide area during migration and experience a large degree of mixing with individuals from elsewhere. The migratory connectivity concept is frequently applied to vertebrate migrants (especially birds), and it is highly relevant to conservation and management of populations. However, it is rarely employed in the insect migration literature, largely because much less is known about the migration circuits of most migratory insects than is known about birds. In this review, we discuss the applicability of the migratory connectivity concept to long-range insect migrations. In contrast to birds, insect migration circuits typically comprise multigenerational movements of geographically unstructured (non-discrete) populations between broad latitudinal zones. Also, compared to the faster-flying birds, the lower degree of control over movement directions would also tend to reduce connectivity in many insect migrants. Nonetheless, after taking account of these differences, we argue that the migratory connectivity framework can still be applied to insects, and we go on to consider postulated levels of connectivity in some of the most intensively studied insect migrants. We conclude that a greater understanding of insect migratory connectivity would be of value for conserving threatened species and managing pests.

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“移民连通性”概念及其对昆虫移民的适用性

迁移连接描述了由于个体的运动轨迹而导致的动物迁移范围不同部分之间的连接程度。当来自某个迁徙范围的某个特定部分的人几乎完全移至该迁徙范围的另一局部区域时，与其他地区的个体几乎没有交融时，便会发生高连通性。相反，低迁徙连通性描述了这样一种情况，即个人在迁移过程中散布在广阔的区域，并与来自其他地方的个人发生了很大程度的融合。迁移连接性概念经常应用于脊椎动物（特别是鸟类），并且与种群的保护和管理高度相关。但是，它在昆虫迁移文献中很少使用，很大程度上是因为对大多数迁徙昆虫的迁移路径了解不及鸟类。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了迁徙连通性概念对远距离昆虫迁移的适用性。与鸟类相比，昆虫的迁徙线路通常包括宽阔的纬度区域之间地理上非结构化（非离散）种群的多代运动。而且，与飞行速度更快的鸟类相比，对运动方向的较低控制也往往会降低许多昆虫移徙者的连通性。尽管如此，在考虑了这些差异之后，我们认为迁徙连通性框架仍然可以应用于昆虫，并且我们继续考虑在一些研究最深​​入的昆虫移徙者中假定的连通性水平。