We’ve long known that some animals depend on the Sun to navigate the world. However, new research may have uncovered the first insect we know of that does the same using the stars and night sky. The stars have long been a navigational tool for humans. For instance, think of the North Star. However, we’ve never discovered any insects that use them the same way we do. At least not before the bogong moth.
According to new research published this year, these moths actually rely on the stars the same way that humans do. Each spring, these moths travel more than 600 miles using the stars as their guide. The journey is an important one for the moths, which rely on the cool climate of the Australian Alps to keep them safe from the obtrusive summer heat.
The thing about bogong moths is that these insects have never traveled to the mountains before they make their yearly migration. This isn’t a path that they take every year of their lives. Many of these insects only live a matter of days or weeks. So, there had to be some way for them to get where they were meant to be. The only answer researchers could reach was stellar navigation.
As I noted above, this form of navigation has been a mainstay in human travels for centuries. It’s one of the primary ways that sailors used to navigate the high seas, and without any kind of land to mark the horizon, being able to tell which way you were traveling just from looking up was extremely important.
And in the Australian outback, where the bogong moths live, one of the most prominent landmarks is the Milky Way. So, it makes sense that these insects might rely on such a prominent figure in the sky to get them around the world. But a theory can only go so far. To truly test it, researchers had to capture some of the insects and put them through some tests.
To test that they actually rely on the stars and not Earth’s magnetic field, the researchers did everything they could to negate the force of Earth’s magnetic field. This allowed them to see that bogong moths do indeed rely on the stars in the night sky to see where they’re going. The researchers hope that by learning more about how these insects get around, it could help with conservation efforts in the future.
For now, knowing that some animals and insects rely on the stars can help us look deeper into the animal kingdom for others that do the same. It can also help us better understand how light pollution, which continues to get worse, might affect these creatures.
