Moths

[randomsugar]

Why do moths seem to be nocturnal if they like light so much, also I know they fly towards light as they think its the moon, but why??? thanx

[amarillis]

The reasons behind the attraction of moths to light are not well understood, some people have suggested that it is an overriding of an attraction to the moon which would help moths find the glades within a forest where flowers and larval food plants are more likely to abound, however as moths do not fly at the moon this would seem to have a few holes in it as a scientific explanation. Another suggestion is that the intensity of the light source causes the moths to perceive the centre of the light as a darkness with their peripheral vision, and that moths seek this centre in order to escape, what would look to them like a diffuse halo of light. As they approach the light source their relationship to the source changes causing them to change their direction, this self correcting feedback cycle results in the erratic and sometimes spiral approach to light observed in many moths. Whether this is true or not I do not know but it seems likely that the moths' highly sensitive light detecting abilities could easily be overloaded by the intense light sources created by man and that this in someway is the cause of it.

[Hippy]

I think that the the moth's "muscles" are slowed and eventually paralysed by light. That makes them inactive in the day, although they seek out dark crevices to hide in.

At night when they are active and fly past a source of bright light the strength saps from their wing action on the side that the light shines and thus slows down that side .

Result; the moth flys in a circle towards the point of intense light. They are powerless to do anything about it, even when the damage their wings. The more they try to fly away, ironically, the nearer the damaging light they go.

 

[Elfin]

It is worth noting that there are many moths which are not attracted to light at all, but are attracted to scent.

Just to add to the confusion, there are also a number of day-flying moths which are not nocturnal at all...