UK migrants (mainly moths).

Matti Jantunen jantsa at sci.fi
Tue Jul 28 10:01:33 EDT 1998


In article <35c5be28.14754018 at wingate>, triocomp at dial.pipex.com (Chris Raper) says:
>
>On 27 Jul 1998 10:03:37 -0700, lday at iquest.net (Liz Day) wrote:
>
>>Wait a second - *moths* migrate?  Do they migrate, or just drift around?
>
>Hi Liz
>
>They migrate - in fact they migrate just as far as butterflies like
>the Monarch (in the US) or Painted Lady (in the UK).
>
>I'm not sure exactly how the urge to migrate is expressed in an
>animals with such a small 'brain' but several north African species
>migrate every year up through Europe and regularly reach the UK and
>Scandenavia - sometimes in very large numbers.  :-)
>
>Best wishes,
>Chris R.
>
The term migrate is difficult, you both (Liz&Chris) are right.
Some spieces (moths) just drift in/by/with the airmass and some spieces seems to
have a strong sence of direction, but even them are more or less drifting to the
direction of wind.
Observed: V. cardui flying against the wind.
  
A very tiny and hairy larva, no matter moth or something else, can also migrate by
drifting in the airmass.


Matti ;} 


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