If moths like the light so much why do they only come out at night?

Answer 1

Phototaxis is an organism's automatic movement toward or away from light. Moths are positively phototactic. They seem charmed by light.

A moth's up-down orientation might depend in part on the brightness of the sky relative to the ground. Some lepidopterists (moth and butterfly scientists) suggest that moths use the moon as a primary reference point and have the ability to calibrate their flight paths as the Earth's rotation causes the moon to move across the sky. If a moth came out during the day and was surrounded by the sun's light it would be very difficult for them to have a consistent point of reference for navigating. Moths don't really "like" lights, they are attracted to it because they NEED it ( the moon's light above and the darkness in the ground at night provide points of reference) as a tool for establishing orientation : P

Answer 2

moths flying round an artificial light at night is another example of human activity disrupting nature. Like when baby turtles hatch in the sand they will use the reflection on the moon on the water to guide them safely to the sea, but can get confused and disorientated by artificial lights and head towards them instead. Moths use the moon to navigate and ensure that they are flying in a straight line, because the moon is so far away if they always keep it to one side they will travel straight. The reason they get confused by artificial lights is because the assume the brightest light they can see to be the moon, and when the come across a brighter light source they assume it to be the moon. Because they are so much closer to it the action of keeping it to one side fails to work, and they end up flapping round it in circles.

Hope this has helped

Answer 3

I heard the answer to this once. It's because the moth perceives the darkness behind a strong light to be extra dark and hence much safer. Thus the moth will flock to a strong light for extra security, unfortunately the opposite is the case.

Answer 4

Most of human beings don't like to be on roads cause of traffic but most of us are seen on roads all the times. Light can be assumed as road or path direction. Because moths work on same sort of signals as bat does in dark. Now what happens when they send these rays in dark they can create an image of any obstacle on the way. But while hitting the light (Even a 60 w bulb) their signals are dispersed and don't get back to them. Hence they assume that's a clear way to carry on. That is why they keep hitting lights.

Answer 5

they don't all come out at night for example the lymantria dispar(gipsy moth the insect not the plane)males fly by day as does orgyia antiqua (vapourer) flies by day to seek out females and no i did not search on here i still do the old fashioned thing called reading a book..(the natural history of britain and europe edited by michael chinery published by rainbow books 1982).however when it was printed there were species you would not find anywhere in britain as they resided purely in europe,now 24 years later im finding species that have migrated to britain.

Answer 6

They see in UV. They think artificial light are a mate. Look at a moth under a black light and you will see

Answer 7

There are lots of day flying moth species. Night flying species do so in an attempt to evade predation (except bats of course).

Answer 8

To avoid diurnal predators. Most of the creatures that prey on moths are asleep at night.

Answer 9

They are nocturnal(come out at night) to avoid predators but use light(genrally moon and stars) as thier reference points. When they see strong unnatural light they fly around it until they can work out where they are
Hope that helped:)

Answer 10

Moths are nocturnal and ONLY come out at night.