Scientists say a tiny brown moth navigates 600 miles using stars — just like humans and birds

(CNN) -Every year, a small type in Australia makes a stressful migration of 620 miles (1000 km), and it prevents this achievement in a way that is only known that humans and migratory birds have done so.

Bougong mission looks to escape thermal travel in spring from all over southeast Australia to cool the caves in the Australian Alps, where they wander in asleep. Then the insects fly all the way to the fall to mart and die. The researchers repeated the conditions of this amazing journey in the laboratory and discovered a major tool that used the mites to find its path: Starry Night Sky.

“It is a real navigation,” said Eric Oml, head of the Department of sensory biology at Lund University in Sweden, and a co -author of the study on Wednesday in the magazine. nature. “They are able to use stars as a compass to find a specific geographical direction for mobility, and this is the first for invertebrate fees.”

Stars are not the only navigational signals that insects use to reach their destination. They can also discover the Earth’s magnetic field, according to the evidence they found Previous research It was conducted by a judicial order and some of his colleagues from the new study. Using two signals, mites have a backup copy in the event of any system failure – for example, if there is a magnetic anomaly or a cloudy night sky.

“With a very small brain, the small nervous system is a very small nervous system, (mites) is able to harness two relatively complex signals and not only discover them, but also use them to get to know the place of going.”

“I only think it adds a piece to the increasing consensus that insects have very great capabilities and really amazing creatures.”

Star -based mobility test in mites

Its homeland is Australia, Bogong, or Agrotis Infusa, is completely night and has an adult wing about 2 inches (5 centimeters).

“It is a very small brown mission, and that people will not necessarily distinguish from any other small brown mission,” she said.

Although mites usually migrate in BillionsTheir numbers have been shattered in recent years, and the species are now threatened and appear in the International Federation for the preservation of nature Red List.

After discovering nearly five years that insects can feel the Earth’s magnetic field, he said that it is suspected of using visual signals to support mobility.

For the theory test, he created the matter – from Australia – a laboratory with his colleagues at his home, about 93 miles (150 km) north of the final destination of mites in the Australian Alps.

“We seized the mites using a light trap, we returned them to the laboratory, then we made a very thin rod on their back, made of tungsten, which is not magnetic. Once you do it, you can keep this small penis between your fingers, and the moth will fly severely at the end of this situation.”

The researchers then associated that another rod, also made of tungsten but for a long time, allows each mission to fly in any direction while discovering a perfectly visual sensor where the insect is going, for the north, every five seconds.

The experiment was prepared in the closed “Mother Arena”, with a picture of the southern night sky that was shown on the surface, which repeats exactly what was outside the laboratory in the day and time of the experiment.

“What we found is that the moth after the moth flew in its direction the inherited migrant,” said. “In other words, the direction they fly must fly to reach the caves in the spring, which is the south of the mites we discovered, or north away from the caves in the fall, which is very interesting.”

Decally, the Earth’s magnetic field effect was removed from the square, via a device called a Hemholtz coilsAnd that created a “magnetic vacuum” so that mites can not only use visual signals.

“The mites were unable to rely on the Earth’s magnetic field to do this task,” he said. “They have to rely on the stars. They did.”

Amazing journey

About 400 representations of this behavioral experience were captured and safely released. The researchers collected a smaller sample of about 50 mits to try to understand the nervous mechanism they used to move, which included holding the poles in the brains of insects and leading to death.

“The small moth cannot see many stars, because her eye has a student who does not exceed 1/10 of our student at night,” said. “But it became clear, due to the optics of the eye, they are able to see this faint at night about 15 times more than 15 times than we do, which is great, because they will be able to see the Milky Way clearly.”

A note said he believed that insects use this beneficial brightness as a visual compass to continue in the right direction.

Regardless of birds and humans, only two other animals move in a similar way, but with decisive differences from mites, according to a memo. north america The monarchy butterfly It also migrates on long distances using one star as a compass, but this star is the sun, as the insect flies only during the day. And some Road dung nails use the Milky Way To find their way at night, but for the simplest task of going in a straight line at a short distance, which is not truly comparable with a long mites journey to a very specific destination.

What makes Bogong Moth skill more exceptional is that the insect does this journey only once in her life, so her ability to move should be innate.

“Their parents died for three months, so no one appeared to them where they went,” said. “They only leave the soil in the spring in some distant areas in southeast Australia, and they simply know where to go. It is completely amazing.”

Many questions remain “

The matter and colleagues did not discover a completely new compass mechanism in an immigrant insect, but they have opened an exciting way of research, as there are still many remaining questions about how to discover mites and use information from their stars, according to Jasson Chapman, associate professor in the environment center and preserving it at the UK University. Chapman did not participate in the new research.

He added via e -mail: “There are still many questions,” such as how to discover Bogong’s mites, how to use them to determine the appropriate direction in which it must fly during the night and between the seasons, how to integrate stars and a magnetic compass, and the extent of the spread of these mechanisms (or may not) among other immigrant factors and other internal factors. “

Jane Hill, a professor of environment at York University in the United Kingdom, who also did not participate in the study, said the results are really exciting and add to the knowledge of scientists about the ways in which insects travel vast distances across continents.

“They are able to move in the appropriate direction, although the stars are moving every night through the sky,” she said. “This feat is more amazing to deport insects, given that different generations do the trip every year and there are no mites from previous generations to show the road.

Subscribe to the newsletter of Wonder’s Wonder Science. Explore the universe with news about wonderful discoveries, scientific progress and more.

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account on Cnn.com