Trillions of “invisible” insects have been detected migrating over the UK by a super radar at the University of Greenwich.

The insects aren’t strictly invisible, but they fly too high to have been tracked before this high-tech radar was invented.

With the vertical radar used as part of a decade-long study, scientists were able to track a biomass (amount of living matter) of these insects that migrate over the UK amount to about 3,200 tonnes per year.

The research could have huge implications when tracking economically-important insects for pollination, as well as tracking pests that damage crops.

Dr Don Reynolds, from the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) at the University of Greenwich, has said that “the mind boggles” over what this could mean for agriculture, particularly in tropical regions.

He said: “The radar was envisaged as providing a powerful means of assessing long-term changes in the biomass and faunal diversity of insects, caused, for example, by environmental perturbations.

“Now after over 10 years of operation this system has produced a classic data-set of the aggregate movement of insects into and out of southern England.

“If the annual flow of insects over a relatively cool maritime place like the UK is so large, the mind boggles at the enormous numbers which will be on the move in warmer climes, and consequent implications of this for tropical agriculture and ecosystem function.”

The research project was done at the University of Greenwich in conjunction with scientists from across the globe.

Senior author, Dr Hu, from Nanjing Agricultural University, China, said:“Many of the insects we studied provide important ecological services which are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems, such as pollination, predation of crop pests and providing food for insectivorous birds and bats.”