![]() This year, Sondhi will be using this new tool to continue his National Geographic-funded research on how moths respond to light pollution. This device will allow us to collect that information." "We talk about how light pollution, noise pollution and climate change impact insects, but we don't know anything about how it affects their activity because we haven't been able to monitor activity for most insect species. ![]() "The baseline data that we need to understand the activity of small insects and other organisms is so limited," he said. Kawahara is optimistic that the new device will help inform efforts to stave off the recent global trend of insect decline and extinction. The goal is to quantify when they are active and then associate that with their traits-for example, if a moth is dull-colored, beige, does that mean it's strictly nocturnal?" Now, we can predict and better understand what's driving when insects fly. "Not everything is as black and white as we think. "It was so cool to see the different activity patterns," Sondhi said. ![]() After all, they have to escape other predators who come out at nightfall, like bats. However, data from the activity monitors revealed they're also active at dusk. It's assumed these brightly colored, toxic moths are exclusively out during the day, because predators steer clear of them and they can move about without fear of being eaten. Sondhi says one of the most interesting examples was a species of tiger moth. They collected 15 species, placing between four and eight moths of each into the activity monitors. It can be built for under $100, a tiny fraction of the lab-based technology that cost anywhere between $1,000 to $4,000.Īfter using pLAM to monitor insect activity in the lab to ensure the equipment was running smoothly, Sondhi and Kawahara tested it on a research trip to Costa Rica. He housed all of this in a mesh cage that looks like a laundry hamper, and the portable locomotion activity monitor, called pLAM, was born. Sondhi gathered a microcomputer, open-source motion tracking software, sensors, a camera and all-important infrared lights that don't disturb or confuse insects. "We had put the project aside, but Yash was able to come along and build the device we'd always envisioned," he said. So when Sondhi offered to try creating it himself, Kawahara was thrilled. But equipment sensitive enough to measure the delicate movements of the smallest moths while being durable enough to hold up in harsh environments and remote locations without electricity or internet proved difficult to engineer. "We wanted to look past the standard nocturnal or diurnal categories that could be an oversimplification."įor years, Kawahara tried to find a portable device that would allow him to track insects while working in the field with his collaborator Jesse Barber at Boise State University, at times even attempting to outsource the work to companies in the hopes they could build it for him. student at Florida International University co-advised by Kawahara. It just might not have been seen," said lead author Yash Sondhi, a Ph.D. "You might think a moth is nocturnal because it's only been seen at night, but that doesn't mean it's not out during the day. Instead, researchers have to lure them in with baits or lights, which only paint a partial picture of their activity. Insects are generally too small to carry around tracking devices that would cue in biologists to their movements. Without this basic information for insects, it's harder to predict or determine how changes in the environment, like an increase in light pollution, might impact them.īut the tinier the animal, the harder it is to track. Knowing when organisms are most active is the foundation for understanding their behaviors and circadian rhythms-patterns that determine when they look for food, reproduce, pollinate flowers and more. "We study butterflies, bees and ants because we can see them, but there are hundreds of thousands of nocturnal insects out there, all of which have been nearly impossible to track until now." "Most of what we know regarding insect behavior is from species that are active during the day," said Akito Kawahara, curator of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History and co-author of a new study describing the device. Yet compared to birds and mammals, scientists know very little about when most insects are awake and active, which is especially true of nocturnal species that fly under the obscuring veil of darkness. Insects are easily the largest group of organisms on the planet, and with species inhabiting every continent, including Antarctica, they're also ubiquitous.
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