4 ms·
This is very interesting and certainly clears up a long held childhood notion that all insects are attracted to the moon (?) makes no sense, but glad to see res
by h4ch1 4y ago
This is very interesting and certainly clears up a long held childhood notion that all insects are attracted to the moon (?) makes no sense, but glad to see research on this.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sacrosancty 4y ago[dead]
- bee_rider 4y agoIt doesn’t seem that childish. At least for some class of insect — if you are a flying insect that mostly is worried about ground animals trying to kill you, “up” is a pretty good default direction.
- NoPicklez 4y agoI thought this too and recently read a book that said the same thing. But then the paper goes on to say this, which seems to make it still hold true? Other mechanisms might contribute to the arrival of insects at nocturnal light sources over longer ranges. For instance, insects do use celestial compasses for nocturnal navigation, and artificial light sources may interfere with these heading. But even at long distances artificial light sources often remain brighter than the night sky and may cause dorsal tilting that would also steer an insect towards a light source.