Why are moths nocturnal? when they are attracted to light?

Answer 1

Here's an answer I gave to a similar question:

Moths fly by night, but can have very good night vision. Of course, they need some light to see by, particularly moonlight and starlight.

Moths and other night-flying insects fly in a straight line by reference to the relative direction of the moon. Because the moon is so far away, the direction to the moont is fixed at any one time, no matter how far the moth flies (and the moths have evolved to take the moon's direction of travel across the sky into account).

However, when they see a bright light close by, and confuse it with the moon,their navigation instinct gets out of whack. In this case, instead of being constant, the angle to the light varies as the insect flies past. So instead of travelling in a straight line, they fly in a curve around the object, when trying to keep the source of light at a constant angle to their flight path. (That is why the spiral inwards towards the source of light).

Incidentally, insects (and birds) that fly by day navigate by the sun; but there is less chance of another bright source of light confusing them.

Answer 2

Moths will circle bright objects, and thus appear to be attracted to light. The favoured hypothesis advanced to explain this behavior is that moths navigate by maintaining a constant angular relationship to a bright celestial light, such as the Moon. The Moon is so far away, that even after traveling great distances, the change in angle between the moth and the light source is negligible; further, the moon will always be in the upper part of the visual field or on the horizon. However, when a moth encounters an artificial light and uses it for navigation, the angle changes noticeably after only a short distance, in addition to often being below the horizon. The moth instinctively attempts to correct by turning toward the light, causing airborne moths to come plummeting downwards, and - at close range - which results in a spiral flight path that gets closer and closer to the light source.

Answer 3

Why Are Moths Nocturnal

Answer 4

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RE:
Why are moths nocturnal? when they are attracted to light?

Answer 5

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly. Both are of the order Lepidoptera. The division of Lepidopterans into moths and butterflies is a popular taxonomy, not a scientific one. Sometimes the names "Rhopalocera" (butterflies) and "Heterocera" (moths) are used to formalize the popular distinction. Many attempts have been made to subdivide the Lepidoptera into groups such as the Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Frenatae and Jugatae, or Monotrysia and Ditrysia. Failure of these names to persist in modern classifications is due to the fact none of them represents a pair of "monophyletic groups". The reality is that butterflies are a small group that arose from within the "moths," and there is thus no way to group all of the remaining taxa in a monophyletic group, as it will always exclude that one descendant lineage.

Most species of moth are nocturnal (which means they are active at night), but there are crepuscular and diurnal species. They can be distinguished from butterflies in several ways.

Answer 6

They are easy prey in the day and use light to navigate namely the moon other lights confuse them thats why they are attracted to em its also why bats have sonar for picking em off

Roxanne is a parrot btw

Answer 7

They are easy prey in the day and use light to navigate namely the moon other lights confuse them thats why they are attracted to em