The migration syndrome in the African armyworm moth, Spodoptera exempts: allocation of resources to flight and reproduction

. Selection for the capacity for prolonged tethered flight in Spodoptera exempta resulted in heavier moths, with significantly larger abdominal glyceride glycerol contents in females of two flight‐selected strains (87% and 49% higher than in the comparable non‐selected strain) and in males of one of them (80% higher). All flight‐selected strains contained individuals of both sexes with very high abdominal glyceride levels. There was no significant relationship between abdominal total glyceride glycerol after flight and flight duration for non‐selected moths, but an inverse linear relationship was evident in both sexes from a flight‐selected strain. Oxygen consumption during tethered flights by flight‐selected moths ranged from 28.2 to 56.6 ml O 2 g ‐1 h ‐1 . Using these and previous data, notional energy budgets were calculated to account for flight, reproduction and resting metabolism for non‐selected and flight‐selected S. exempta flown on the flight balances and provided thereafter with distilled water. The results confirm the trade‐off between flight and reproduction reported by Gunn et al. (1989). A similar approach using data for two non‐selected strains from the field in Kenya indicated genetic variation in migratory potential, reflected both in pre‐reproductive period and resources available for flight. We conclude that elevated glyceride levels are a component of the migratory syndrome in S. exempta and that this is the major factor underlying the curvilinear relationship between flight duration and fecundity obtained by Gunn et al. (1989).