Swat team: scientists track humongous number of flying bugs

[December 26, 2016]  By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Counting the number of bugs whizzing high overhead annually may seem all but impossible, but researchers in Britain have completed the most comprehensive tally ever conducted. And the headcount they came up with was almost un-bee-lievable.

A total of 3.5 trillion insects weighing a combined 3,200 tons annually migrated annually over a region in south-central England monitored with specialized radar and a balloon-supported aerial netting system, the scientists said on Thursday.

"High-altitude aerial migration of insects is enormous," said University of Exeter entomologist Jason Chapman, whose research was published in the journal Science. "These aerial flows are an unappreciated aspect of terrestrial ecosystems, equivalent to the oceanic movements of plankton which power the oceanic food chains."

The researchers tracked the migration of insects at altitudes between 492 feet and 3,937 feet (150-1,200-meters) over a 10-year period. They suspect even more migrating bugs could be found elsewhere.

"The numbers will be considerably higher in most parts of the world, but we lack the data to extrapolate the total numbers yet," Chapman said.

In terms of biomass, the insects greatly exceeded migratory birds in Britain. Their biomass was seven times that of the 30 million songbirds flying from Britain to Africa each autumn.

While the study did not plot the departure and destination points for the migrating bugs, they were thought to be traveling back and forth numerous miles (km), and sometimes over the English Channel and North Sea.

"Some of the butterflies and moths we studied migrate hundreds of kilometers (miles) in each generation, and thousands of kilometers (miles) over the course of the year, which may include six generations," Chapman said.

Insects play important roles, pollinating plants, facilitating productive soil through decomposing, serving as food sources for birds and bats, spreading disease, and serving both as crop pests and predators of crop pests.

The silver Y moth (Autographa gamma), pictured, is a major component of the large night-flying insect migrants studied by radar in the new study, measuring migration annually over a region in south-central England monitored with specialized radar and a balloon-supported aerial netting system, scientists said, December 22, 2016. Ian Woiwod/Handout via REUTERS

"We could not function without them," Chapman said.

The mass insect migrations generally headed north in spring and south in autumn.

The most abundant day-flying insects in the study included cereal aphids and the tiny parasitoid wasps that attack them. The most abundant medium-sized day-flying insects included hoverflies and ladybirds, also called ladybugs, and the most common big ones included large butterflies such as the painted lady.

At night, abundant small insects included midges and other flies, while medium-sized ones includes lacewings and large ones included noctuid moths and hawkmoths.

(Reporting by Will Dunham)

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