Insects capable of flight also migrate around the world depending the season, similar to birds. However, until now, not much was known regarding their numbers since they are hard to spot and count. Thanks to a new study, south-central England is the site where over 3 trillion flying bugs pass through.
The study which offered a rough approximation of the number of migratory flying bugs across this area in England was published in the journal Science, by a team of researchers led by Jason Chapman, a University of Exeter entomologist.
Chapman states that scientists mostly ignore the migratory patterns of insects, except that of the monarch butterfly, as they focus on more charismatic birds such as the Arctic tern, and others. However, flying bugs deserve being properly studied due to their immense potential of having either a positive or negative impact on the environment.
Chapman also went on to say that due to England’s relatively cold and damp climate, repeating the experiment in other regions of the world would very likely exceed the 3 trillion number of flying bugs found to travel through England.
For their study, the researchers monitored the seasonal migratory patterns of various insects such as the marmalade hoverfly among others. Flying bugs can be especially hard to count, due to their size and the altitudes they fly at. As such, Chapman and his colleagues had to resort to a number of specialized tools like narrow beams of radar which were pointed to the sky to spot bigger insects while using nets attached on small blimps to sample the smaller insects which fly at lower altitudes.
Besides offering an approximate number of insects that migrate throughout the south-central part of England, the researchers also discovered that migration mostly happens during daytime. Noting the lack of similar studies for other regions in the world, Chapman hopes to eventually see an increased interest in the migratory patterns of insects around the planet, as they carry both diseases as well as nutrients with them.
The study provides important data to scientists interest in learning how diseases can appear in regions, even without humans transporting them.
What do you think about the migratory patterns of flying bugs across England? Are you surprised at a number of insects?
Image source: Pixabay
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