Why do Moths fly to a light (flame) ?
It was thought the moon had something to do with the attraction of moths to light. The so-called light-compass theory held that moths used the moon as a navigational beacon flying in a straight line keeping their direction of travel at a constant angle. The trouble arise when moths made their sightings on a close-up light source like a candle flame.Instead of heading in a straight line, they flew around the flame in an ever-narrowing spiral until finally getting burned sometimes. Research made by Henry Shiao proved the theory to be incorrect. He found out that moths simply don’t fly around lights in spirals. In his experiment he found that the moths flew more or less straight at the light until they got up close, at which point they veered off and circled around it at a more or less constant distance. They seldom actually touched the light.Moths are drawn to light from as far as 200 feet away but once they get near the light they actually try to avoid the light. Hsiao pointed out that
