Artificial night lighting inhibits feeding in moths

Published source details van Langevelde F., van Grunsven R.H.A., Veenendaal E.M. & Fijen T.P.M. (2017) Artificial night lighting inhibits feeding in moths. Biology Letters, 13, 20160874.
Share Tweet Email

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Use ‘warmer’ (red/yellow) lighting rather than other lighting colours Action Link

Use ‘warmer’ (red/yellow) lighting rather than other lighting colours

A replicated, randomized, paired, controlled study in 2012 in a laboratory in the Netherlands (van Langevelde et al. 2017) found that four species of moth spent more time feeding under red light than under white or green lights, but less time than when they were in full darkness. Moths were more likely to feed under red light (5–14% of observations) than under white (4–11% of observations) or green (2–8% of observations) lights, but still fed less than in dark conditions (17–34% of observations). Forty compartments (30 × 25 cm, 60-cm-deep), arranged in 10 blocks, were randomly assigned to four light treatments: red, white, green or no light. A 1 W Deco-LED lamp above each compartment was mechanically filtered to the correct wavelength, and covered with layers of cotton to diffuse the light. Light was applied at 15 lux. On three nights in August–September 2012, one moth was placed in each compartment. Each night, 20 compartments contained captive-bred cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae of the same age, and 20 contained either straw dot Rivula sericealis, small fan-footed wave Idaea biselata, or common marbled carpet Dysstroma truncata (one night/species), caught from the wild the previous night using light traps placed in mixed forest. All moths were starved for one day before the experiment. Moths were provided with a 1:10 sugar-water soaked piece of cotton wool, and recorded as feeding or not feeding 10 times/hour for six hours.

(Summarised by: Andrew Bladon)