A dragonfly called Pantala flavescens that is barely an inch and a half long appears to be the animal world’s most prolific long distance traveler, flying thousands of miles over oceans as it migrates from continent to continent, according to newly published research in the journal PLOS ONE.

Biologists at Rutgers University found that populations of this dragonfly in locations as far apart as Texas, eastern Canada, Japan, Korea, India, and South America, have genetic profiles so similar that there is only one likely explanation. Apparently, these insects are traveling extraordinarily long distances, and they are breeding with each other, creating a common worldwide gene pool that would be impossible if they did not intermingle.

“This is the first time anyone has looked at genes to see how far these insects have traveled,” said Jessica Ware, senior author of the study. “If North American Pantala only bred with North American Pantala, and Japanese Pantala only bred with Japanese Pantala, we would expect to see genetic results that differed from each other. Because we don’t see that, it suggests the mixing of genes across vast geographic expanses.”

But how do insects from different continents manage to meet and hook up? These are not large birds or whales that one would expect to travel thousands of miles. Ware says it appears to be the way their bodies have evolved.

“These dragonflies have adaptations such as increased surface areas on their wings that enable them to use the wind to carry them,” she said. “They stroke, stroke, stroke and then glide for long periods, expending minimal amounts of energy as they do so.”

Dragonflies have already been observed crossing the Indian Ocean from Asia to Africa.

“They are following the weather,” said Daniel Troast, who analyzed the DNA samples in Ware’s lab. “They’re going from India where it’s dry season to Africa where it’s moist season, and apparently they do it once a year.”

Moisture is a must for Pantala to reproduce, and that is why these insects would be driven to even attempt such a perilous trip, which Ware calls a “kind of suicide mission.” The species depends on it. While many will die en route, as long as enough make it, the species will survive.

Flight patterns appear to vary. The hardiest of the dragonflies might make the trip nonstop, catching robust air currents or even hurricane winds and gliding all the way. Others may, literally, be puddle jumpers. Pantala need fresh water to mate and lay their eggs, and if while riding a weather current they spot a fresh water pool created by a rainstorm, it’s likely that they dive earthward and use those pools to mate. After the eggs hatch and the babies are mature enough to fly, which takes just a few weeks, the new dragonflies join the swarm’s intercontinental and now multi-generational trek right where their parents left off.

For the moment, the details of this extraordinary insect itinerary are an educated best guess, as are specific routes these migrations might take. Much more work is needed to bring many loose ends together. But now that their work has established a worldwide population of intermingling dragonflies, Ware and Troast hope that scientists can work on plotting those routes in earnest. They would need to be innovative, because tracking devices that can be attached to larger animals are far too big to put on insects.

What the Rutgers scientists have discovered puts this dragonfly far ahead of any identified insect competitor.

“Monarch butterflies migrating back and forth across North America were thought to be the longest migrating insects,” said Troast. “But Pantala completely destroys any migrating record they would have.”

Monarch butterflies travel about 2,500 miles during their migration, but Pantala’s estimated range is about 4,400 miles — longer than Charles Lindbergh’s celebrated solo flight from New York to Paris by at least several hundred miles.

Pantala leaves many of its fellow dragonflies even farther behind. The mysteries of evolution are such that while Pantala and its cousin the green darner (Anax junius) have developed into world travelers, other members of the family “don’t ever leave the pond on which they’re born, traveling barely 36 feet away their entire lives,” according to Ware.

Read more at:

– A Global Population Genetic Study of Pantala flavescens