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A new take on long distance travel – expressly for sex. In this case it’s not the journey that matters, it’s the destination.

A record-smashing 7,000km single journey by a type of dragonfly in order to procreate, beats monarch butterflies travelling 4,000km to perpetuate their species.

Sex-crazed, on a ‘suicide mission’ says it all!
These hardy dragonfly travellers, measuring just four centimetres, can travel this distance in one go, stroking their elongated wings to get into a path of strong winds. Some hop on the whirling mass of a tropical cyclone to get a bit more speed. The laziest leapfrog from island to island, taking in some fast food along the way. Most die.

Winging their way across the Indian Ocean from Asia to Africa, they follow the same trade winds that allowed sailors to undertake similar trips two centuries ago. They migrate to take advantage of wet weather – since moisture is a must because they lay their eggs in small pools of water.

The wanderlust of Pantala flavescens makes them different from their landlocked cousins, who struggle to leave the pond where they’re born. Found on every continent except Antarctica, they make epic migratory flights and deserve their name ‘wandering glider or globe skimmer’.

Rutgers University-Newark shows research by biologists tracing dragonfly populations across four continents. Research by Jessica Ware of Rutgers University-Newark published in PLOS ONE journals. 
Acknowledgement Sipho Kings/ Mail & Guardian / March 04 2016
Top image courtesy of Brandon Satterwhite 

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