Why do moths put out the fire?

Moths belong to Lepidoptera insects, most of them are nocturnal and like to gather in bright places. There is a saying that "moths burn themselves against the fire". Under the street lamp on a sunny summer night, you can always see many moths turning around the lampshade and breaking their wings on the telephone pole. let's take a look at why the moths are on fire.

Why do moths put out the fire?

Moths rely on the moonlight to determine the direction when they fly at night, always making the moonlight project to the eye from one direction. After avoiding the enemy's chase or turning around the obstacle, as long as one more turn, the moonlight will still come from the original direction, and it will find the direction. This is a kind of "astronomical navigation." Moths see the light and mistakenly think it is "moonlight", so they also use this fake "moonlight" to tell the direction. The moon is so far away from the earth that moths can fly in a certain direction as long as they maintain a fixed angle with the moon. But the light is very close to the moth, and the moth instinctively keeps itself at a fixed angle from the light source, so it can only circle around the light until it is exhausted and dies.

Why do moths like light?

Moths seem obviously attracted by light from onlookers, but in fact it is more accurate to say that they circle around bright objects "because the moths are dizzy and disoriented". Moths use light for compass navigation and have evolved to use fixed parts of the eye to receive light. As long as the light source is very far away, such as the sun or the moon, the angle of the light received in the eye will be almost uniformly parallel, and the visual image will remain the same as long as the moth moves in a straight line. But when the light source is very close, if it still travels in a straight line, the angle of the light it receives changes at each moment of movement. So in order to adapt to this change, the moth seems to be spiraling toward the light source from the onlooker.

The difference between moths and butterflies

Butterflies usually fly during the day, while moths like to move at night.

2. The antennae of butterflies are mallet-shaped, while those of moths are straight and mostly feathered.

3. The butterfly is slender, but the moth is plump and hairy.

4. When the butterfly stays, it puts its wings together and stands upright on its back, while the moth spreads its wings flat.

Butterflies are of different colors and have patterns on their wings. On the other hand, the moth has less color, has more fluff on the body, and looks gray.