Why Moths Fly Close To Light
Why Moths Fly
Close to Light
Why do Moths fly close to candles or artificial light? It seems that insects that fly at night, such as Moths, use light to orientate themselves. They are not actually attracted to or drawn to light as previously thought. Entomologists at Imperial College used high-speed infra-red cameras to film the flight paths of Moths and found that the insects did not fly directly towards light, but tilted their backs towards it. This is because they are using the light to orientate themselves. In the natural world they keep their backs facing the star strewn sky, rather than the darkness of the ground, in order to remain the right way up. However when they mistake an artificial light source for the starry sky, they lose their orientation, resulting in them making endless loops around the light source. The most dangerous of manoeuvres is when they pass directly over a lamp which can lead them to flip upside down and crash.