Why do insects fly into lights? Various explanations have been proposed, including that they use the Moon for navigation, or fly to light to help avoid danger.
The most compelling theory, however, is that it’s not so much flying as falling with style.
Night-flying insects have evolved to orient themselves by tilting their backs towards the brightest part of the sky, aka the Moon. Then streetlamps came along and the behaviour didn’t change.
This means today, moths end up circling lights and banking so hard that they often stall or crash.
Think of the moth as an old-fashioned fighter plane that tries to pull off one stunt too many and then pays the price!
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Muhammad Khan, via email) 'Why do insects fly into lights?'
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