Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: Ultima on 31/05/2004 01:06:11

Title: Why have Moths evolved to head towards light?
Post by: Ultima on 31/05/2004 01:06:11
Just had a beautiful white and silver Moth dive bombing at me... Took 15mins to get it back out the window where it came from (I literally don’t hurt a fly if I can help it). I then got to wondering why on Earth, have Moths evolved to head towards light, I know its something to do with the moon etc. But surely it gets them into more trouble than its worth.

wOw the world spins?
Title: Re: Why have Moths evolved to head towards light?
Post by: Ultima on 31/05/2004 01:32:26
Found a good link about this, but I don’t want to spoil peeps fun at thinking about it. Apparently there is no absolute reason, just educated guesses.

wOw the world spins?
Title: Re: Why have Moths evolved to head towards light?
Post by: valley on 11/06/2004 22:46:04
The reason I heard (I have no idea of its veracity!) was that they aren't actually heading *for* the light, but that they end up near it as they think it's the moon...

If you're a moth and are trying to fly in a straight line, then you can do this by keeping the moon always on your left/right. If the 'moon' is actually a light quite close to you, keeping it always on one side has the effect of making you fly in circles around it - hence the moths end up spiralling in on the light.