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nest with the Queen. So why do so many appear at one time and form these swarms? The answer to this is multifarious: n Their mass emergence is triggered by the weather, the ideal conditions are warm, still, sunny weather following rain. The fine, warm weather is important for them to be able to fly, the preceding rain is just as important however as they need the soil to be quite soft so that they can burrow in to it to start new colonies. Because they are all waiting for the same environmental cues it results in many colonies emerging at once over a large area, hence the huge swarms. n There are benefits to this mass emergence swarming, it means that there is such a glut of available food for predators that they cannot possibly eat them all in such a short space of time - so some are guaranteed survival. n The swarming also means that ants from different colonies will mix, which is important for the mixing of genetics. This is particularly important in species such as ants when you consider that all the ants from a colony are virtual clones of each other, all having come from the same Queen.
Some people don’t like these swarms of flying ants, but spare a thought for the Princess ants. They are entirely harmless and a great source of food for our much-loved birds such as Swifts and Swallows. And after she has mated, she has to bite her own wings off before burying in to the ground! Also out of a whole colony only one Princess may live to be a Queen. However, if she does, she may get to live an incredible 25 years, which is pretty good if living underground in perpetual darkness, constantly giving birth is your thing. As if this isn’t already more Hitchcock than Disney, the males all drop dead within two days of their maiden flight!
Ladybird swarms also occasionally make the headlines, most famously in 1976. It is thought that there was an explosion in aphid numbers due to certain crops being grown in the 1970s that were particularly favoured by them. This coupled with a warm spring lead to an explosion in aphid numbers, which then fueled mass Ladybird production. This was followed by the long, hot dry summer where plants wilted and masses of ladybirds swarmed trying to find suitable food. I did wonder whether this would occur in the exceptionally hot summer we experienced in 2018, but history didN’t repeat itself. There were plenty of reports of localised swarms of ladybirds entering people’s houses in the autumn to hibernate, as pictured in the attic of this house in Newport.
In times gone by though, people talked about swarms of butterflies over meadows or hundreds of moths caught in car headlights. The sad fact is that these spectacles are increasingly rare, and in many places have become a things of the past. These swarms are what feeds all the animals higher up the food chain and it is vitally important that everybody does their bit to preserve what we have left and make steps to allow these swarms to return.
It’s not just insects that are described as swarms, you also get swarming behavior in bats. There are two different types of bat swarming behavior:
n Dawn swarming outside roost sites. As the name would suggest, this occurs at dawn, the bats don’t immediately retreat inside the roost but fly around outside for a few minutes. This may have some social function and provides quite a spectacular site at larger roost sites as it occurs as it is starting to get light, affording good views of the bats. n Autumn swarming. This occurs outside the entrance to winter hibernation sites during the middle part of the night. It has been found that male bats are more numerous at these autumn swarms with females just being present for a single night. It is thought that it is an important part of their mating ritual with the males swarming over many nights hoping to father as many pups as possible, whereas once the females have mated they have no need to hang around!
Whilst not called swarms, many other animals also swarm. Many fish form large shoals, as with the insects and bats in autumn these shoals can be brought together for the purposes of mass breeding. However, they can have other benefits, largely relating to predator avoidance. A large shoal of fish has more eyes to look out for predators and can form a confusing, swirling mass making it more difficult for a predator to pick out an individual (good old safety in numbers!) Also a hunting shoal of fish can be more effective, as if their prey manages to avoid one fishes mouth it will get gobbled up by the next!
Birds also swarm, but we call these flocks. The most spectacular flocks we get here in Gwent are the wader flocks on the Severn Estuary and Starling murmurations. These flocks have nothing to do with breeding but again, there is the predator avoidance tactics employed by the shoals of fish.
The waders are also driven together into flocks as firstly their available resource for feeding is reduced by the incoming tide and then at high tide only limited areas are available for them to roost so they all need to congregate together.
The Starling murmurations are the result of safety in numbers, our Starling population being boosted in winter by many birds from further north and a relatively small number of safe roost sites. An additional important consideration is the heat generated by so many birds being huddled together roosting. This can raise the temperature by a couple of degrees which can be critical to survival on a cold winters night.
So, don’t fear the swarms if you’re lucky enough to witness this wildlife spectacle this summer - they are to be marveled at and long may they continue to occur. Our survival depends on them too!
To find out more about the work of Gwent Wildlife Trust visit:
www.gwentwildlife.org
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GWENT WI LDL I F E TRUST SWARM WE LCOME
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