Windborne moth migration over the Middle East

Abstract. From 10 years' records of moths caught in a light trap at Eilat, Israel, eleven selected occasions with sudden increases in catch involving seventeen species were related to accompanying changes in wind. At all times of the year examined, sudden increases in catch of all species were associated with winds changing direction to blow from the Nile Delta or from the Levant. All seventeen species are inferred to be windborne over at least several hundred kilometres. The results are consistent with huge plumes of moths streaming downwind each night from the Delta and the Levant, sometimes crossing Eilat, sometimes crossing the Mediterranean, but more often passing into the deserts. Plumes are produced throughout the breeding season of each species. The results are probably representative of migration elsewhere from the southern limits of breeding on rain‐fed vegetation, with inferred widespread adult mortality and renewed breeding most likely after migration on brief spells of southerly winds.