Habitat fragmentation affects habitat-finding ability of the speckled wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria L.

The ability of an organism to find new habitat is likely to contribute to dispersal success in different landscapes. We compared the ability of male speckled wood butterflies from two types of landscape to orientate towards forested habitat as a behavioural assay of the ability to perceive forested habitat at a distance ( 25-e 200 m). This field release-experiment showed that butterflies of fragmented agricultural landscape origin were better able to orient towards habitat at a greater distance than butterflies of continuous woodland landscape origin. They followed more linear tracks, displayed flight angles that deviated less from orientation towards habitat, and showed orientations that were significantly directed towards habitat at greater distances than butterflies of continuous landscape origin. Attraction was facilitated when target habitat had a high pro. le. Our behavioural experiment provides novel insights into landscape connectivity and points to interpopulation differences in the ability to find habitat associated with landscape type. (c) 2007 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.