Artificial lights at night are causing serious disruption to insects on the night shift. Insects often become disoriented, ...

Flying insects are known to make a beeline for lights in the dark, as the saying goes, "like moths to a flame." Now, scientists have figured out why insects are so keen on light, but it's not ...

A multiple-exposure photograph of insects circling a light at night. Samuel Fabian, CC BY-ND. Samuel Fabian, ... keeping their backs to the bulb until, eventually flying straight up, they stalled and ...

Especially flying ones, like insects that perform feats of flight that can surpass those of human pilots. When flying, they experience such rapid acceleration that their gravity sensing becomes ...

But this hasn't been so great for night-flying insects. Moths can detect light wavelengths as low as 300 nanometers (invisible to human eyes) and as high as 700nm (orange-red to humans).

We have all seen the headlines about the alarming decline in insect populations. But while the plight of butterflies and bees ...

NEW PAPER: Ever wondered why insects fly in all sorts of crazy patterns around lights at night? So did we! We set about recording flying insects to work out what's going on.

Immy Smith; Source: “Why Flying Insects Gather at Artificial Light,” by Samuel T. Fabian et al., in Nature Communications, Vol. 15; January 2024 (reference) Rights & Permissions ...

When insects flew directly under a light, they often arched upward as it passed behind them, keeping their backs to the bulb until, eventually flying straight up, they stalled and fell out of the air.