What if you had to find your way through hundreds of miles of unknown territory with only your eyes and a simple compass to guide you? That’s what the Australian Bogong moth does in its annual migration, flying over 600 miles (roughly 30 million times its body length) to seek a haven from summer heat in the cool caves of the Australian Alps.
An international team of researchers announced in the journal Current Biology that Bogong moths rely on a magnetic sense as well as vision to steer its flight path. This makes them the first nocturnal insect we know of that can sense the Earth’s magnetic field — and maybe use it to guide their seasonal odyssey, joining a sophisticated club of birds, sea turtles, and fish.
