Scientists use tiny trackers, plane to follow moths on move

NEW YORK — Trillions of insects migrate across the globe each year, yet little is known about their journeys. Their flight paths suggest these death’s-head hawk moths have some complex navigation skills, the authors said, challenging earlier ideas that insects are just wanderers. “For many, many years, it was thought that insect migration was mostly just dictated by winds, and they were blowing around,” said lead author Myles Menz, now a zoologist at James Cook University in Australia. The iconic species — dark colored with yellow underwings and skull-like markings — was able to fly well with the tiny tracker glued to its back, said Martin Wikelski, a study co-author and migration researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior. “And it certainly is surprising that individual moths stay on this straight trajectory.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.