An Australian moth follows the stars during its annual migration, using the night sky as a guide compass, according to a new study.
When temperatures rise, night bogong moths fly about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) for Refresh in caves near the Australian Alps. Later they return home to reproduce and die.
Birds are usually oriented by the light of the stars, but the moths They are the first known invertebrates, or creatures without spine, in finding their path through such long distances using the stars.
Scientists have long wondered how the moths travel to a place where they have never been. A previous study hinted that the Earth’s magnetic field could help direct them in the right direction, along with some type of visual reference point as a guide.
Since the stars appear in predictable patterns every night, scientists suspected that they could help mark the way. They placed moths on a flight simulator that imitated the night sky on them and blocked the magnetic field of the earth, observing where they flew. Then, the stars revolted and saw how the moths reacted.
When the stars were as they should be, the moths fluttered in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells were also excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky.
The findings were published on Wednesday in Nature magazine.
It was a very clean and impressive demonstration that the moths are really using a view of the night sky to guide their movements, “said Kenneth Lohmann, who studies animal navigation at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and did not participate in the new research.
Researchers do not know what characteristics of the night sky they use moths to find their way. It could be a strip of lightning of the Milky Way, a colorful nebula or something more completely. Whatever, insects seem to trust that together with the Earth’s magnetic field to make their trip.
Other animals take advantage of stars as a guide. The birds take heavenly signals while rising through the skies and players peloteros make their remains short distances while using the Milky Way to stay in progress.
It is an impressive feat for Bogong moths, whose brains are smaller than the size of a rice grain, trusting the night sky for his odyssey, said study author David Dreyer, from the University of Lund in Sweden.
“It is remarkable that an animal with such a small brain can do this “, Dreyer said.