Why are Moths Attracted to Light?
Are Moths Attracted to Light?
A general question asked and studied by many with no generally accepted 100% correct or positive answer. From the 100′s of thousands of moth species on the platen earth, scientists such as entomologists and ecologists have discovered that light does not attract all kinds of moth, we always notice the ones that do but. The reasons why moths are attracted to light and tend to gather outside near the light-post and other lights during the evening and early morning are governed by their particular species, gender, the moons position, phase and visibility and time of night.
It is believed that male moths sometimes mistake candle heat and scent for female moths.
Are there any more reasons why some species of Moths are attracted to light? Not many – but results vary. Another ancient hypothesis is that moths navigate by maintaining acute angles towards the moon, in other words they spireal directly towards a fixed artificial light. Other times they head towards the sky’s natural light, escaping predators or before hight altitude voyages.
Not always considered a reason why moths are attracted to light but it’s quite possible: When a moth has landed near a light it does not remain there because it likes it, they most likely become blinded, disorientated and or confused by optical illusions that show safe darker areas near the light’s edge. The illusion effect they are would be seeing here is the same as if you stared at the sun (not advised by anyone) for a while and then closed your eyes or tried to look at something very large and completely black, this is most likely when they want to fly away but are seeing illusions which confuse the moths.
Comment from yourz4ever
Time October 9, 2011 at 2:55 pm
The current theory is: moths are not attracted to light. They fly towards an artificial light as a navigational accident.
Over the millennia, moths navigated at night by the light of the moon. To fly in a given direction, they would keep the moon in a fixed location, relative to their bodies. For example, to fly north, they would keep the rising moon over their right shoulder. However, a porch light, for example, is brighter than the moon for a moth flying nearby so he confuses my porch light with the moon–thinking the brighter light is the moon. Unfortunately, keeping my porch light over his right shoulder only works as he flies directly by. As he gets a little bit past, the light is behind him. So he turns to get the light opposite his shoulder again. And ends up spiraling into the light with every correction he makes. That’s the theory.
But, as anyone who watches moths around porch lights knows, not all moths spiral in. Many, many moths fly directly at the light source with little indication of any spiral, says Dr. James K. Adams, professor of natural sciences at Dalton State College.
We don’t have another generally-accepted theory which explains both why some moths spiral and others don’t.
By the way, some night-flying moths, says Adams, migrate using the moon as a primary reference and calibrate that reference with their internal geomagnetic compass. Every hour they alter their flight path by 16 degrees to correct for the travel of the moon across the sky (the Earth’s rotation). On moonless nights they navigate solely with the geomagnetic compass.