Insects Can Migrate Hundreds Of Miles By Way Of Windstream

Posted on February 10, 2010 with 1 Comment

Everybody knows that birds fly south for the winter, however, some have wondered what do butterflies or moths do when it gets cold up north? Recently, the answer to that question has begun to get answered. It has been found that insects are able to get into complex windstreams, or a “wind highway”, and can be taken for thousands of kilometers to the Mediterranean for the winter and back north for the summer. These windstreams go up to 60 miles per hour, and carry these insects where they need to go. The amazing thing is, that through all the study that has been done so far, these insects very rarely go in the wrong direction.

Now the question remains, how does this work? The system is extremely complex, and further study is needed to fully understand how this works. Some wonder how do butterflies and moths, two fragile creatures, handle these high winds. The researchers figured that this is due to some mechanism that eliminates the turbulence that they would feel during the trip. The insects use their internal compass to find these wind highways, and each insect is thought to use the same method to get into these highways. The whole process is complex and there is still tons of information yet to be discovered about what exactly goes on. However, once that information is revealed, maybe these insects will be mentioned with birds when migration is talked about each winter.

BBC wrote about this story first.

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