New Allies against Light Pollution: Moths.

Extract from a letter in today's Irish Times (about declining moth populations):

" Recent correspondence in Atropos, the butterfly, moth and dragonfly magazine, postulated that a main cause of this decline is "light pollution" - our fondness for intrusive floodlighting and generally excessive lighting results in the unfortunate moths aimlessly circling lamps when they should be reproducing.
For those interested in recording the numbers of moths there is now a specifically Irish system at www.mothsireland.com . "

Not new allies. A large part of conservation arguments against light pollution, including in the debates around the Slovenian law, were based around moths.

They can fly up to ~25km towards a light and will then circle it until they die of exhaustion. Being at the bottom of the food chain they have an immense effect on animals higher up.

The older folks here, particularly from rural areas, will probably remember how in the past when you turned a light on outside it was instantly swarmed by insects. You don't see that anymore.

This pic is of a two second exposure of a light in rural australia. I remember that quantity of insects in my grandads yard in wexford, but I haven't seen anything like that quantity in years.



Thanks for posting that. I'll get in touch with mothsIreland!

Very interesting Albert.
(I notice that the link to "mothsireland" doesn't work...a bit moth-eaten I'd say.)

Very interesting Albert.
(I notice that the link to "mothsireland" doesn't work...a bit moth-eaten I'd say.)

haha! It does now.

Interesting.
Birds eat insects so this might also account for the plummeting numbers of many bird species.
See:
www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature...n-crisis-812640.html

Birds eat insects so this might also account for the plummeting numbers of many bird species.

That was suggested by the BAA some years ago. And researchers now believe that light pollution causes problems for birds at several levels.

You might be interested in the couple of pdf's here:
www.ilpac.eu/content/view/32/25/