Javascript must be enabled to use this form.

Web Site Search (click below)
Searching With Just One Click

How it Works

Moths

I am assuming a moth is nocturnal, correct me if im wrong...Im sure someone will, What puzzles me is, if it wont come out in daylight, why the heck does it make straight for the brightest light it can find at night ?


silly~lilly  Tue 08/07/08 15:57
andy-hughes
Tue 08/07/08
15:58
Excellent Rating
Daylight is ambient, a bulb at night is a specific source of light, which the moth can sense.

It's really as easy as that.
silly~lilly
Tue 08/07/08
15:59

Question Author

thank you andy- hughes, that was a very quick response!
Still dont get it though .
andy-hughes
Tue 08/07/08
16:42
Excellent Rating
You are welcome.

Put yourself in a moth's position - you sense light, but only direct light, with a source you can move towards - such as a bulb or a candle - so you head for the source.

The sun spreads its light over several million square miles, so it has no obvious source that a moth's senses would pick up. We can know the sun is the source of light, because we are rather more sophisticated than a moth (well when you look on here you do wonder ....) so we can appreciate the sun - or any ambient light - as a light source.

A moth needs something direct and within reach to be an attraction.

Hope that clear it up a little better.
andy-hughes
Tue 08/07/08
16:43
Sorry, i realised just as I posted, it may look like I was having a pop at you for not understanding my first answer - I was definitely not referring to you when I mentioned 'people on here' - they know whom they are
raysparx1
Tue 08/07/08
16:44
So andy, why don't the moth fly towards the sun during the day? might take him a while to get there though.
silly~lilly
Tue 08/07/08
16:46

Question Author

thank you once again andy-hughes, a very good answer. No problem about having a pop, i didnt think that for one moment but then again, i am a bit slow lol and silly of course.
lajohn
Tue 08/07/08
16:47
i am looking for where you post 'people on here' to see if it's me you mean but i cannot find where. where? :-)
Mortartube
Tue 08/07/08
19:25
I believe that many moths use the moon as a navigational aid and various species fly with their bodies at a certain angle relative to the moon.

I often wonder what a moth might think when it flies towards a lightbulb that it thinks is the moon and then reaches it. It probably goes back and tells all the other moths that it flew all the way to the moon. They of course are unlikely to believe him.
shylock73
Wed 09/07/08
13:13
I believe moths fly at night because the birds are at roost and wont eat them, but bats fly and outsmart them with their radar. The reason they fly to the moon is to get height for their pheromones to spread far and wide so that mating can take place, putting it as simply as poss. Watch more of David Attenborough series.
Submit the above question and answers
 add to del.icio.us  add to digg  add to furl
 add to reddit  add to Technorati  add to Blinklist
 add to StumbleUpon  add to squidoo  add to ma.gnolia
 add to Cocomment  add to Netscape  add to Fark

Have Your Say

With road tax hikes hitting those with 2001-2006 registered cars, would you consider selling up and buying a pre-2001 model to escape the the tax mans wrath?

Yes 

No 

The hikes don't really bother me 

about us | [Ctrl + D] adds us to bookmarks Switch to UK Net Guide You are in The AnswerBank  switch to UK Net Guide