Jianrong Huang, Hongqiang Feng, V Alistair Drake, Don R Reynolds, Boya Gao, Fajun Chen, Guoyan Zhang, Junsheng Zhu, Yuebo Gao, Baoping Zhai, Guoping Li, Caihong Tian, Bo Huang, Gao Hu, Jason W Chapman
Long-distance migrations of insects contribute to ecosystem functioning but also have important economic impacts when the migrants are pests or provide ecosystem services. We combined radar monitoring, aerial sampling, and searchlight trapping, to quantify the annual pattern of nocturnal insect migration above the densely populated agricultural lands of East China. A total of ~9.3 trillion nocturnal insect migrants (15,000 t of biomass), predominantly Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, and Diptera, including many crop pests and disease vectors, fly at heights up to 1 km above this 600 km-wide region every year...
April 30, 2024: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America