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Why moths come to light -- new research study published

This is an exciting new study providing an original and seemingly convincing explanation of this age-old puzzle. The idea is that insects are not attracted to a light source but come to it because of navigation errors. The title is "Why flying insects gather at artificial light." The publisher has posted a great 7-minute video explaining the study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00261-y

Here is an excerpt from the Abstract of the study:

"Contrary to the expectation of attraction, insects do not steer directly toward the light. Instead, insects turn their dorsum toward the light, generating flight bouts perpendicular to the source. Under natural sky light, tilting the dorsum towards the brightest visual hemisphere helps maintain proper flight attitude and control. Near artificial sources, however, this highly conserved dorsal light-response can produce ...more ↓

Posted on January 31, 2024 08:30 PM by amacnaughton amacnaughton | 1 comment | Leave a comment
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This project collects observations of moths in Ontario for the the Toronto Entomologists' Association. The TEA has been collecting observations in the province since 1970 and recently launched the Ontario Moth Atlas of moth phenology and ...more ↓

dkaposi created this project on August 5, 2016
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