Moth populations in steady decline in Britain, study finds

Long-running survey finds 1976 heatwave boom has been followed by dropping numbers.

Moths are declining in abundance by 10% each decade in Britain but the average weight of moths caught in traps is still double what it was in 1967, according to a new study.

Researchers studying the biomass of moths caught in the world’s longest-running insect survey said their findings suggested that if there had been an “insect armageddon” in Britain, it had occurred before scientific recording began in 1967.

Rather than a precipitous recent decline, scientists at the University of York found that moth populations had boomed following the 1976 heatwave – and moth biomass today was still twice as high as 1967 levels – but there had been a steady decline in abundance since 1982.

Read more

Moths survive bat predation through acoustic camouflage fur

Date:  November 6, 2018

Source:  Acoustical Society of America

Moths are a mainstay food source for bats, which use echolocation (biological sonar) to hunt their prey. Scientists such as Thomas Neil, from the University of Bristol in the U.K., are studying how moths have evolved passive defenses over millions of years to resist their primary predators.

Read on  

Gardening trade sparks surge in new moths to UK

14/06/2018

An increasing number of new moth species are arriving and settling in the UK as a result of the global reach of the horticultural trade and the changing climate, moth experts have revealed. According to wildlife publisher Atropos and charity Butterfly Conservation, almost 30 new species of pyralid moth have been recorded in the UK in the last 30 years, with eight becoming established residents.

Pyralid moths include some of the largest and most distinctive of the 1,600 species of micro-moths found in the UK. Around 900 species of the generally larger and better known macro-moths are also found here.

The North Sea and English Channel provide a natural barrier to many potential colonising moth species, but the horticultural trade can provide a route into the UK, with eggs, caterpillars or even pupae hitching a ride on imported plants. Climate change is also altering conditions, enabling moths to take advantage of habitats in new areas. This recent increase in new species comes at a time when many of the UK's native moths are in decline as a result of habitat loss and agricultural intensification.

As part of this year's Moth Night, an annual UK-wide event to record and celebrate moths, organisers Atropos, Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are asking the public to look for pyralid moths in their gardens, the countryside and at specially organised moth trapping events.

Pyralids are often under-recorded, so scientists need new reports of sightings both to determine how these moths are faring across the UK and to spot any new species that have arrived.

Read on  

Mixed signals from poisonous moths

Date:  June 4, 2018

Source:  University of Exeter

Poisonous moths use bright red spots to warn predators to avoid them -- but natural variation in these wing markings doesn't provide clear indications of how toxic individual moths might be -- new research shows.

University of Exeter scientists studied six-spot burnet moths, which produce cyanide-based compounds to make themselves a bad snack for predators, to see if differences in colours indicated different toxicity levels.

While smaller and paler red forewing markings were associated with more cyanide in females, size and brightness of wing colour were no guide to cyanide levels in males.

"Many animals use aposematism (warning colouration) to tell predators it would be better to find lunch elsewhere," said first author Emmanuelle Briolat, of the University of Exeter.

Continued  

Rare moth species spotted in city by wildlife biologist

Sun,07 Jan 2018

Summary: The sighting of Asian spotted swallow tail moth species after years will be helpful in research activities and to study moths," Q Ashoka Chakkaravarthy, wildlife biologist, who spotted the rare moth, told TOI.The peculiar moth spotted in Trichy at Salai road locality was said to be a fondly preferred feed for the birds. "We have been studying moths in Trichy since 2013 but the sighting of Asian spotted swallow tail moth was first since then. "It is quite surprising to spot such moth species in a noisy environment like Trichy city. Each fore wing has a hooked tip while each hind wing spot a short tail with a black spot thus bearing the 'spotted' tag in its name. Generally with majority of moths being nocturnal (night time flyer), Asian spotted swallow tail moth is said to be a diurnal moth (day flying moth). Trichy: In a rare find, Asian spotted swallow tail moth species was found by environmentalist in Trichy which was previously sighted at the foothills of Pachamalai forest habitat in the district in December 2015.The presence of such rare moth species in city limits for the first time in recent years was cited by the environmentalists as a good indicator of environmental health as the moth species play a crucial role in balancing food chain apart from serving as able pollinators for the flowering plants.

Read on  

Night-flyers or day-trippers? Study sheds light on when moths, butterflies are active

Date:  December 12, 2017

Source:  Florida Museum of Natural History

Summary:

Butterflies fly during the day while moths travel at night - or so you might think. In reality, their behavior is much more complicated. A new study offers the first comprehensive overview of the surprisingly complex question of when butterflies and moths are active.

Read on 

The value of nutrition and exercise, according to a moth

Researchers discover the secret behind the astonishing feats of nectar-feeding animals

Date: February 22, 2017

Source: University of Arizona

Quick! Name the top-performing athletes in the animal kingdom. Cheetah? Try again. Blue whale? Nope.

Here's a clue: If you take a walk in the desert on a moonlit night, you might see them, darting from flower to flower and hovering in midair: moths of the hawkmoth family (Sphingidae).

Nectar-feeding moths, pollinating bats and hummingbirds are masters in sustaining the most intense exercise of all animals. To extract nectar from a flower, they must hover in front of the flower before darting off to the next one. But how can these organisms perform such feats on a diet that's mostly sugar?

New research by University of Arizona biologists not only offers an explanation, but also suggests that these animals stay healthy not despite, but because of, their sugary diet.

Oxygen, while necessary for life to exist, is a double-edged sword. The more we engage in intense aerobic exercise, such as hovering, the more oxygen reveals its ugly side in the form of reactive oxygen species -- small reactive molecules that wreak havoc on cells.

Researchers in the lab of Goggy Davidowitz in the Department of Entomology in the UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences discovered that hawkmoths (also known as Manduca moths) have evolved a strategy that helps them minimize the muscle damage inflicted by the oxidative stress generated during sustained flight. The results are published in the journal Science.

Continued 

Moth takes advantage of defensive compounds in Physalis fruits

August 26, 2016

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology found that the specialist moth Heliothis subflexa benefits from secondary plant components by turning the original defensive function of these compounds into its own advantage. Withanolides, which are present in Physalis plants, usually act as immune suppressants and feeding deterrents in insects. Surprisingly, Heliothis subflexa uses these plant defenses as immune-system boosters. Moreover, withanolides protect the moth from harmful effects caused by pathogenic bacteria. The new study demonstrates a unique benefit to host-plant specialization.

In order to survive and to repel herbivores, many plants defend themselves by producing toxic or deterrent substances. In the course of evolution, many insects have succeeded in adapting to the defensive chemistry of their host plants and thereby circumventing plants' defence mechanisms. However, the plants have also adapted their defensive system to further protect themselves against their enemies, which, in turn, generated counter-adaptations in the insects; biologists refer to this phenomenon as an "evolutionary arms race" between plants and insects. Many insects are plant pests which can be categorized as "specialists" and "generalists." Whereas generalists feed on many different plants, specialists have adapted to one or few closely related plant species as their food. The moth species Heliothis subflexa analysed in this new study is such a host specialist.

Read more at: 

Street lights lure moths away from gardens, say scientists

Moths’ role as pollinators is disrupted in brightly lit urban areas, finds research

Tim Radford

Thursday 2 June 201600.01 BST Last modified on Thursday 2 June 201611.23 BST

Street lights don’t just lure moths, they may be helping to impoverish suburban gardens by causing them to fly too high to pollinate flowers, researchers at Newcastle University report.

It could be at the cost of honeysuckle, ivy, the roadside wildflower white campion, and even buddleia, say the authors of a new study in the journal Global Change Biology.

The scientists have been looking not at the effect of change on either plants or on pollinators but on the interactions in an increasingly urban world.

“We all know that moths are attracted to light,” said Callum Macgregor, a PhD student at the university’s centre for ecology and hydrology and one of the authors.

 Moths should be loved, not loathed. Only a couple are after your clothes

 “Where there are street lights, our research indicates that moths are being attracted upwards, away from the fields and hedgerows. This is likely to cause disruption of night-time pollination by moths, which could be serious for the flowers that rely on moths for pollination, and of course there could be negative effects on the moths themselves.”

Moth and butterfly populations are in long-term decline in both the UK and Europe, and artificial lighting could be one potential cause, they say. The researchers captured and counted moths – including hawkmoths – in lit and unlit farmland in Oxfordshire. Where there were street lights, moth abundance at ground level was halved, but doubled at lamp-post height.

Read on … 

Scientists create artificial pheromone to stop moths ruining clothes

Artificially-created scent sexually confuses female moths, subsequently stopping them breeding and laying fabric damaging eggs in clothes

Press Association

Wednesday 13 April 2016 23.58 BST

Last modified on Thursday 14 April 201601.02 BST

Scientists have found a way to force moths out of the wardrobe: by making them sexually confused.

The trick is to lure male moths and cover them in a pheromone “perfume”. The scent delivers a message that says: “I am female”. When female moths get a whiff of the pheromone they lose interest in breeding.

As a result they fail to lay eggs which would under normal circumstances hatch out into hungry larvae that munch on fabrics.

In scientific trials, the treatment – Moth Population Control Assist – disrupted the life cycle of clothes moths enough to reduce their populations by 90%. David Cross, from Rentokil pest control, which conducted the research, said: “[We can] naturally and humanely curtail moth populations without the use of potentially harmful chemicals.

“By experimenting with their natural pheromones and limiting the reproduction cycle, we can effectively get moths out of the closet and prevent damage to clothes and furniture.”

The treatment uses an artificially created scent both to attract and then confuse the male moths.

New figures released by Rentokil have confirmed that the mild, wet winter has improved conditions for clothes moths and increased infestations in the UK.

Inquiries to the pest control specialists about moths from members of the public received between December 2015 and March 2016 increased by 20% compared with the same period the previous year.

Read on …

Some like it hot: Moth and butterfly species respond differently to climate change

October 30, 2015

New research led by ecologists at the University of York shows that certain species of moths and butterflies are becoming more common, and others rarer, as species differ in how they respond to climate change.

Collaborating with the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the charity Butterfly Conservation, the University of Reading and Rothamsted Research, scientists analysed how the abundance and distribution of 155 species of British butterflies and moths have changed since the 1970s.

Using data collected by thousands of volunteers through 'citizen science' schemes, responses to recent climate change were seen to vary greatly from species to species.

Published in Science Advances, this research shows variation among species is attributed to differing sensitivity to climate change, and also because species vary in how much the climate has changed for them (their 'exposure').

Sensitivity is a measure of how much species' numbers change as a result of year-to-year changes in the weather - each species is sensitive to different aspects of the climate, such as winter temperature or summer rainfall. Variation in how much the climate they are sensitive to has changed for them - their 'exposure' - is also a contributing factor in their varied responses.

Read more at: 

Genetically engineered moths could be released in Britain to save crops

Research shows that releasing moths which only produce male offspring causes population crashes

Genetically engineered moths could be released into the British countryside 

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

1:00AM BST 16 Jul 2015

Genetically engineered moths could be released in Britain to prevent devastating damage to broccoli and kale crops, scientists have claimed.

Researchers from Oxford University spinoff Oxitec, have tweaked the genes of the insects so that they only produce male offspring.

Tests in greenhouses have shown that releasing GM diamondback or cabbage moths causes populations to crash quickly, limiting damage from caterpillars. New results show that levels had been controlled within just eight weeks.

Now scientists are set to carry out new outdoor trials in New York State after gaining approval from the US Department of Agriculture.

“This research is opening new doors for the future of farming with pest control methods that are non-toxic and pesticide-free,” said Dr Neil Morrison, lead Research Scientist at Oxitec.

“We all share an interest in safe and environmentally friendly pest control, so this is a very promising tool that could be put to good use by farmers as part of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for healthy and sustainable agriculture.”

The self-limiting gene technique has already been trialled against dengue fever-carrying mosquitos, successfully reducing their populations by over 90 per cent in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands

Continued ...

Moth eyes could lead to more efficient solar cells

March 6, 2015

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

The compound lenses found in the eyes of moths have inspired a team of researchers to develop a new antireflective coating that could make solar cells more efficient than ever before.

In a recent edition of the journal ACS Nano, researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore explain that compound lenses found in nocturnal moth eyes helped lead to a coating that can also sharpen the view of solar cell image sensors.

Important non-reflective pattern

The moths ocular faculties contain micro lenses (ommatidia) which are patterned with nanoscale dome-shaped bumps that help reduce the reflection of light at multiple wavelengths, according to Gizmodo. These ommatidia make it possible for the moths to navigate in the dark.

“The ability to capture light and not let go is appealing in the world of solar cells because it can increase efficiency,” the website added. “So the team from Singapore has taken inspiration from the complex lens structure to create a process that stamps patterns over the surface of a material, replicating the antireflective effects of the moths’ eyes.”

Read more at

Why are moths fatally attracted to light?

Saturday 28 February 2015

Moths are not attracted to light. They navigate by light, operating under the assumption that the main source of light is far, far away – ie, the moon. If, say, a moth keeps the moon always on its left-hand side, it will fly in a vaguely straight line for a fair while. (It's obviously more complicated than that, but the principle is the same.)

But if the light is a porch light, keeping that on its left-hand side will make the moth fly in circles (and we won't see it), in outward spirals (and we won't see it), or in inward spirals (and we will see it as flying 'towards the light').

This has worked out pretty well for them for 190,000,000 years, but in the past 50-75 years, man-made lights have made things occasionally confusing. Before that, the only thing that would confuse them would be rare small fires. (If a moth is in the middle of a forest fire, navigation is the least of its problems.) And again, even there, many of the confused moths would not be harmed, but would merely orbit in circles or outward spirals until the fire died out.

Read on ...

Moths shed light on how to fool enemy sonar

Date:

February 18, 2015

Source:

University of Florida

Summary:

It's hard to hide from a bat: The camouflage and mimicry techniques that animals use to avoid becoming a meal aren't much use against a predator using echolocation. But a new study shows that moths can outsmart sonar with a flick of their long tails.

Continued ...

Spotlights flip the switch on an evolutionary arms race

When lights go on, moths drop their guard against predatory bats.

Madeline Bonin

06 February 2015

Flip on a light in the middle of the night and the average kitchen cockroach or mouse will scurry away. In the same situation, however, some species of moth tend to drop their defences and end up as a bat’s lunch.

Bats and moths have been evolving to one-up each other for 65 million years. Many moths can hear bats’ ultrasonic echolocation calls, making it easy for the insects to avoid this predator. A few species of bat have developed calls that are outside the range of the moths’ hearing, making it harder for the moths to evade them1. But humans short-circuit this evolutionary arms race every time they turn on a porch light, according to a study in the Journal of Applied Ecology2.

In field experiments, ecologist Corneile Minnaar of the University of Pretoria and his colleagues examined the diet of Cape serotine bats (Neoromicia capensis) both in the dark and under artificial light in a national park near Pretoria. The bat, an insect-eating species common in South Africa, has an echolocation call that moths can hear. Minnaar and his team determined both the species and quantity of available insect prey at the test sites using a hand-held net and a stationary trap.

Continued ...

Physicists solve longstanding puzzle of how moths find distant mates

(Phys.org) —The way in which male moths locate females flying hundreds of meters away has long been a mystery to scientists.

Researchers know the moths use pheromones to locate their mates. Yet when these chemical odors are widely dispersed in a windy, turbulent atmosphere, the insects still manage to fly in the right direction over hundreds of meters with only random puffs of their mates' pheromones spaced tens of seconds apart to guide them.

Moths from the species Bombyx mori were used for the study

"The male moths are flying toward females integrating all of this information along the way and somehow getting to them," said Massimo Vergassola, a professor of physics at UC San Diego. "French naturalists reported this behavior over a century ago and it has continued to be a puzzle to entomologists, neuroscientists and physicists."

Read more at: 

Analysis Of Moth Flight-Mechanics Could Result In Development Of Biobot Drones

August 21, 2014

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a way to convert moths into miniature drones by electronically manipulating their flight muscles and monitoring the signals the insects use to control them.

Dr. Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and colleagues from NC State and Cornell University devised a method to attach electrodes to a moth during its pupal stage, when it is still in a cocoon and undergoing metamorphosis. The research could lead to the development of remote-controlled emergency-response “biobots,” while providing new insights about how a moth coordinates its muscles during flight.

“In the big picture, we want to know whether we can control the movement of moths for use in applications such as search and rescue operations,” said Dr. Bozkurt, who co-authored a Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE) paper on the research.

“The idea would be to attach sensors to moths in order to create a flexible, aerial sensor network that can identify survivors or public health hazards in the wake of a disaster,” he added. “By watching how the moth uses its wings to steer while in flight, and matching those movements with their corresponding electromyographic signals, we’re getting a much better understanding of how moths maneuver through the air.”

Read more at

Green Flame Moths: Scientists Discover Two New Limacodidae Species from China and Taiwan

Oct. 29, 2013 — The representatives of the Limacodidae moth family are widely known as slug moths due to the resemblance of their stunningly colored caterpillars to slug species. Within this popular family the Parasa undulata group is perhaps one of the most intriguing, due to the beautiful green wing pattern typical for those species. In a recent revision, published in the open access journal Zookeys, scientists describe two new species from the group and provide a first record of a conifer-feeding caterpillar.

The two new species, Parasa viridiflamma and Parasa minwangi described from China and Taiwan both have the distinguishable green pattern typical for the group. They have a wingspan of averagely around 2 -- 2.5 cm and can be seen mainly in mid-elevations of mountains. The resemblance of the wing pattern of P. viridiflamma to mystical green flames has also inspired its name, derived from the Latin words viridis (green) and flamma (flame).

The revision of this group in Taiwan and China, compiled by Shipher Wu, National Taiwan University and Weichun Chang, Council of Agriculture, Taiwan, contains another intriguing discovery. The scientists provide the first record of a caterpillar from the group feeding exclusively on pine trees, Picea morrisonicola, in Taiwan.

"This case represents the first record of conifer-feeding behavior in this family as well as the first specialist herbivore in the genus. Meanwhile, the background match between Picea leaves and larval colouration is shared with other Picea-feeding insects. This phenomenon is worth further investigation in the aspect of convergent evolution of crypsis, or camouflaging, associated with a particular plant," explains Shipher Wu, one of the authors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029133548.htm