just curious?

Question

any body else at night time, seen moths in there droves round your outside light? if they like light that much,why dont you see them in the daylight? dont want a six page explanation off a boffing, just a simple explanation will do?

Answer 1

Like the Imperial Moth, Eacles imperialis, at the right, when moths are at rest usually but not always they hold their wings flat against the surface they are resting on (butterflies usually but not always fold their wings above them)
As the close-up of the head of the above Imperial Moth at the right shows, moth antennae are divided into feathery segments (they are said to be plumose)
MOTH IDENTIFICATION
Unless you are trying to identify one of the larger and fancier moth species, moth identification is usually harder and less certain that butterfly identification. That's because there are more kinds of moth than butterflies, and many moth species are small, fairly unspectacular, brownish or grayish ones. You can see what I mean by taking a glance at our Moth Families Page. When you see all those names, remember that they are families, some of them with many genera, and many of those genera having many species!

A Field Guide to Insects : America North of Mexico (Peterson Field Guides)

Also, there are just no good field guides to all the moths, the way there is with birds, and almost is with butterflies. Most field guides with moths in them are for "butterflies and moths," which means that butterflies are the main subject, but some of the more common moths are included.

The USGS's Moths of North America Web site helps with identification by providing hundreds of thumbnail photos to choose from. You need a comprehensive field guide to be sure of your identifications. For example, The US Fish & Wildlife Service kindly contributed the picture at the left, identified by them as the Cecropia Moth, Hyalophora cecropia. When I posted the picture, Michael Newton somewhere in Cyberspace wrote saying it wasn't a Cecropia Moth at all, but rather a Columbia Silk Moth or a Glover's Silk Moth. It's not unusual for common species such as Cecropia Moths to have look-alike relatives, so you always need to double-check your identifications.

It's a great help in moth identification if you have a checklist of the species found in your area. Also, field guides with distribution maps for each species help the identification process enormously. If you are in Maine, for instance, you shouldn't have to try to distinguish your moth from a look-alike species in Louisiana. The Moths of North America site provides distribution maps showing where moth species have been reported. By the way, if you are in the USA and you find a new species for your county, you can submit the new record. Information for doing that is provided here.

If you have an idea what family your moth belongs to, you might visit the Moths of Maryland Website, where you can click on a family and see photos.

If the above sites are of no help with your identification, then use a field guide to figure out what family the moth belongs to. Often just by looking at a field guide's illustrations you can make an educated guess as to a moth's family, even if your species is not included among the pictures. Otherwise, to determine the family you may need to look at the field guide's wing venation diagrams or use other technical features. Once you have the family, then type the name into the box of the in the images" section of the Google search engine,. For example, if you think you have some kind of sphinx or hawk moth, you'd type in "sphingidae," since that's the technical name of the Sphinx Moth Family. Then you'd see hundreds of thumbnail pictures of various sphinx months, and maybe one of them will be the one you are trying to identify. If you see a picture looking like what you have, just go to the Web page where the image is found, and probably there you will find the moth's whole name.

WAYS MOTHS PROTECT THEMSELVES
Moths protect themselves from predators in some interesting ways. For example, can you figure out how the Polyphemus Moth, Antheraea polyphemus, illustrated at the left, might cause a hungry bird to go away? Notice how this moth's hindwings are adorned with what appears to be eyes glaring at us. Well, if you were a bird about to pounce on the poor Polyphemus, and the Polyphemus opened its wings and those big yellow eyes were suddenly staring at you, wouldn't you think twice about gobbling it up?

The moth at the left, with the curious name of "The Neighbor," Haploa contigua, isn't very colorful, but its bold wing patterns take advantage of a special camouflage technique known as disruptive patterning. In disruptive patterning, the outline of an animal is broken up or blurred, making it hard for a predator to know what it is seeing. Is "The Neighbor" one black and white insect, or six white insects on a black background? Or maybe it's not an insect at all. The moment of confusion disruptive patterning can bring about may be all the time an organism needs to escape being eaten!

Another way for a moth to confuse its predators is for its camouflage to blend it in with its environment. The Rustic Sphinx, Manduca rustica, at the right is clearly visible to us, but just imagine how hard it would be to see it if it were quietly perched on a brown tree trunk thickly covered with gray lichen! In the picture, notice the moth's long proboscis sticking into the flower's throat, being used like a straw to suck up the flower's sweet nectar. This species is found from the southern US south through Central America to Uruguay in South America.

THE GIANT SILKWORM MOTHS
The above Polyphemus Moth is a member of Giant Silkworm Moth Family, the Satrniidae, and that's a moth family you should know. This family is famous for its very large, showy moths -- with wingspreads up to about 6 inches across (15 cm). Caterpillars in this family often bear spines or tubercles, and are so large that their silken cocoons are sometimes confused with hummingbird nests. At the right you see such a cocoon "not much larger than an extra large chicken hen's egg," according to Maureen, who sent us the picture from West Palm Beach, Florida. The adult moth has already emerged from the cocoon, as you can see by the exit hole at the top of the cocoon, shown in the inset at the picture's lower right. I think this is the cocoon of a Polyphemus Moth.You may enjoy browsing Bill Oehlke's Large and Showy Moths (Saturniidae) of North America.






Or you could just click on this link and have a look your self


http://www.backyardnature.net/moths.htm


God I am sooo bored and even looked that up for you, couldnt resist when you said nothing long and boring

hahahahahahahahaha

Answer 2

"Henry Hsiao to the rescue. He said moths exhibit two kinds of behavior. When they're distant from a light source (they're drawn to light from as far as 200 feet away), they make a beeline straight toward it. Why, nobody knows. Maybe they've tumbled to the fact that lights mean people, and people mean: Wool sweaters! On an even more basic level, a light means: Other moths! Par-ty!

However, when the moths get close to the light, a different kind of behavior takes over. Instead of being attracted to the light, the moth is actually trying to avoid the light. When you think about it, this is only natural. To a creature of the night like a moth, daylight and by extension any bright light means danger. The moth doesn't fly directly away from the light due to a peculiarity of vision called a Mach band. A Mach band, which apparently is common to all sighted creatures, is the region surrounding a bright light that seems darker than any other part of the sky.

Hsiao conjectured that the moth's atom-sized brain figures the darkest part of the sky is safest. So it circles the light in the Mach band region, usually at a radius of about one foot, depending on the species. Eventually either its momentum carries it away or it finds a dark corner to hole up in.

In short, moths like some light but not too much--just like other creatures I could name. Nobody wants to get burned, naturally, but at some point in our lives, aren't we all attracted to those bright porch lights?"

Answer 3

I come right here because i do not get carry of adequate interest contained in the Royalty section. EDIT: Your further information might want to easily as actual ask why, at the same time as an atheist has a question, do Christians tell them to "study the Bible" or answer with miles of replica/previous textual content. there is not something efficient from such an answer, basically as there is not something to be received from declaring that there is not any god. yet that's a public talk board, an section to ask questions or talk problems with a non secular and non secular nature. we are able to continually get carry of solutions we are not searching for, yet as sensible, in charge human beings, we ought to continually be able to look previous that. do not you compromise?

Answer 4

They are nocturnal creatures attracted upward by moonlight, street lights are brighter and override the moonlight.

Answer 5

They navigate using the moon, but get confused by other lights.

Answer 6

because when it is dark and they see that one bright light they are instantly attracted to it now if its light everywhere then well.... i think u get the point.

Answer 7

They are attracted to light and they are night critters.

Answer 8

They are like bats CREATURES OF THE NIGHT or should i say LIGHT

Answer 9

They come out at night to plague us.

Answer 10

moths think its the moon.