[ad_1]
It is hard not to be a little fascinated by the nightmare Agrotis infusa – or Bogong moth, as it is called in Australia where it belongs.
Brown insects live their larvae in autumn and winter and become nocturnal adults in areas with nutrient soils and farmland. However, when summer arrives and the heat becomes too unbearable, they receive their food.
In the light of darkness, night worms take wings over 1000 kilometers of travel. The goal is to find caves that they have never visited before, far in the Australian Alps.
In cool caves, butterflies enter a kind of hibernation. They sit like wallpaper on the hollow walls for a few months before getting up and putting their noses in their childhood plains.
But how can an insect make its way over such distant distances?
Magnetic Confusion
When David Dreyer of Lund University and his colleagues from several countries launched the investigations, they expected to find out that the nightmare is sailing after major landmarks and celestial bodies like the moon and the stars. then the researchers did a test that would have returned everything.
They allowed the insects to fly in a simulator where it was possible to change the two landmarks and a magnetic field similar to that of the Earth.
Sail well as long as the researchers turned the benchmarks and the magnetic field online. But when Dreyer and Co. twisted the landmarks in one way and the magnetic field on the other, he quickly went to the ball for the nocturnal twitches
Closer to Sakstein: Millions of nightmares gather in a pile of caves in the Australian Alps. (Photo: Eric Warrant)
->
I do not know how
This shows that insects are able to know the magnetic field of the Earth and that they use this ability to find their way, just as some migratory birds do.
However, Dreyer and his colleagues have no idea how night worms manage to perceive the magnetic field. Or elsewhere how it goes with birds and other animals. Although previous studies have shown that some creatures have this ability, we still do not know what mechanisms are behind.
Maybe the new member of the exclusive magnetic club can help solve the puzzle. The nattsmermer has a relatively simple nervous system, and Dreyer hopes that further studies of the insect will provide a more basic understanding of how the body can feel magnetism.
Reference:
D. Dreyer, B. Frost, H. Mouritsen, A. Günther, K. Green, M. Whitehouse, S. Johnsen, S. Heinze and E. Warrant, Earth's Magnetic Field and Visual Landmarks Guide Migratory Flight Behavior in the Australian Night Bogong. Moth, Current Biology, June 2018. Abstract.
Source link
