Trillions of insects migrate across the globe each year, yet little is known about their journeys.
In this undated image provided by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, after tagging, moths are released in Konstanz, Germany, and followed in a light aircraft for up to 80 kilometers into the Alps. . So to look for clues, scientists in Germany took to the skies, placing tiny trackers on the backs of giant moths and following them by plane.
“For many, many years, it was thought that insect migration was mostly just dictated by winds, and they were blowing around,” said lead author Myles Menz, now a zoologist at James Cook University inIt’s been tough for scientists to get a close look at how insects travel, in part because of their small size, Menz said. The kinds of radio tags used to follow birds can be too heavy for smaller fliers.
The moths are thought to migrate thousands of miles between Europe and Africa in the autumn, flying by night.
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