Counting the number of bugs whizzing high overhead annually may seem all but impossible, but researchers in Britain have completed the most comprehensive tally ever conducted. And the head count they came up with was almost un-bee-lievable.
A total of 3.5 trillion insects weighing a combined 3,200 tons annually migrated over a region in south-central England monitored with specialized radar and a balloon-supported aerial netting system, the scientists said on Thursday.
"High-altitude aerial migration of insects is enormous," said University of Exeter entomologist Jason Chapman, whose research was published in the journal Science. "These aerial flows are an unappreciated aspect of terrestrial ecosystems, equivalent to the oceanic movements of plankton which power the oceanic food chains."