Like several other evolutionary phenomena, Charles Darwin had a theory of why insects eventually gave up the ability to fly. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that Charles Darwin was right.

Many scientists have expressed their doubts about this theory. However, very few people have examined the diversity of insects found on sub-Antarctic islands.

Researcher Rachel Leihy said: "Darwin and the famous botanist Joseph Hooker had an argument about why this happened. If they fly, the insects will be blown into the ocean. The overlap on land would create the next generation of species that were most reluctant to fly, and eventually evolution would do the rest. If Darwin really got it wrong, then the wind would be inexplicable at "Why so many insects lose their ability to fly over these islands".

For the new study, Leihy and her colleague Steven Chown used a large and up-to-date set of data on insects from the sub-Antarctic and Arctic islands to examine possible explanations for prevalence. of the problem can not fly.

Leihy and Chown examined animal inventories, morphological information of species and environmental variables on 28 islands in the Southern Ocean.

They found that non-flying insects were more common among insects that evolved on the island than recently discovered insects. They also found that insects were more likely to skip a flight in the windiest regions.

Continuous high winds make it difficult to fly, making insects save their evolutionary capital and invest in reproduction instead of wings or wings.

"Remarkably, after 160 years, Darwin’s ideas continue to provide ecological insight," Leihy stressed.