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Background <p>The navigation of flying insects is known to be disrupted by artificial light at night (ALAN), causing problems for long-distance dispersal. This attraction to lamps, also known as the fatal attraction, also leads to increased mortality. This study aims to investigate whether insects that are known to use celestial information for epigeal movement (multimodel navigation) are affected by light pollution, for example by masking the necessary celestial information.</p> Methods <p>We observed the movement of 77 European dung beetles under varying light conditions, having captured them from their natural forest canopy and leaf-litter habitat. We offered them 4 different light condition in a planetarium: Illumination increased across four scales: (A) dark (without illumination), (B) a projection of a reduced number of stars, (C) with a projection of stars and the Milky Way (MW), and (D) with a lamp (ALAN point source) positioned 3&#xa0;m distance from the test arena. Beetles were released facing North at the centre of a round arena and filmed from above. Their movement paths were analysed (Multivariate Analysis of Variance), and we investigated the directionality of the movement by comparing exit angles from a radius of 50&#xa0;cm around the release point using a Rayleigh-test.</p> Results <p>The longest and most convoluted paths were observed under dark or limited stars (A and B), whereas paths under the illumination of either a lamp or stars &amp; MW (C and D) were faster and less winding. The majority of beetles left the arena heading west with a narrow distribution of exit angles as the illumination increases. In the illuminated treatments, a proportion (30%) of animals exited in the exact opposite direction (180°).</p> Conclusion <p>These findings support the hypothesis that celestial bodies are used to optimise movement, an ancestral mechanism in insects, and indicate that even species evolved to live in dark forest habitat and partly underground, use such mechanism. However, this species´navigation may not be affected by artificial light at night.</p>

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Do dung beetles use the Milky Way to optimise their movement?

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月1日

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  • Vera Kaunath,
  • Tony Werner,
  • Christopher C. M. Kyba,
  • Jana A. Eccard

摘要

Background

The navigation of flying insects is known to be disrupted by artificial light at night (ALAN), causing problems for long-distance dispersal. This attraction to lamps, also known as the fatal attraction, also leads to increased mortality. This study aims to investigate whether insects that are known to use celestial information for epigeal movement (multimodel navigation) are affected by light pollution, for example by masking the necessary celestial information.

Methods

We observed the movement of 77 European dung beetles under varying light conditions, having captured them from their natural forest canopy and leaf-litter habitat. We offered them 4 different light condition in a planetarium: Illumination increased across four scales: (A) dark (without illumination), (B) a projection of a reduced number of stars, (C) with a projection of stars and the Milky Way (MW), and (D) with a lamp (ALAN point source) positioned 3 m distance from the test arena. Beetles were released facing North at the centre of a round arena and filmed from above. Their movement paths were analysed (Multivariate Analysis of Variance), and we investigated the directionality of the movement by comparing exit angles from a radius of 50 cm around the release point using a Rayleigh-test.

Results

The longest and most convoluted paths were observed under dark or limited stars (A and B), whereas paths under the illumination of either a lamp or stars & MW (C and D) were faster and less winding. The majority of beetles left the arena heading west with a narrow distribution of exit angles as the illumination increases. In the illuminated treatments, a proportion (30%) of animals exited in the exact opposite direction (180°).

Conclusion

These findings support the hypothesis that celestial bodies are used to optimise movement, an ancestral mechanism in insects, and indicate that even species evolved to live in dark forest habitat and partly underground, use such mechanism. However, this species´navigation may not be affected by artificial light at night.