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Abstract
Insect dispersal on the large oceanic island of Tenerife was studied by sampling the “biological fallout” of insects (and other arthropods) on mountain snowfields and also collecting them from the sea surface in a neuston net and over a leeward coast in a kite net. Live arthropods were found on snow at densities up to almost 18 m–2, and at least 37 arthropod families were represented: taxonomic composition of the samples was comparable to that on mountains on larger land masses. The catches obtained in the neuston and kite nets indicated that many arthropods are blown out to sea from the island. A wide variety of endemic species (as well as introduced and undifferentiated indigenous ones) were involved in aerial dispersal. The results are compared with those obtained in a study on a subantarctic island, and the selective pressures acting on dispersal behavior and relating to the evolution of flightlessness in insects are discussed.