Moth

• ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., April 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics' North American Innovation Campus hosted the Life's Good Earth Day Community Fair to showcase LG's commitment to bettering the planet and making "Life Good" for all.
• Open to the public, more than 1,000 people attended the event and LG collected several thousand pounds of unwanted electronics.
• Attendees included local schools, community members, LG employees and their families.
• Esteemed guest speakers at the LG's Earth Day fair included:
  "We are thrilled with the success of the Life's Good Earth Day Fair," said Laura Barbieri, Head of CSR and Community Relations, LG Electronics.

• We searched for meaningful comparisons of insect activity by day and by night.
• Our global analysis confirms there are indeed more insects out at night than during the day, on average.
• And now we know for sure, we can make more strident efforts to conserve insects and preserve their vital place in the natural world.

Building a global dataset of sleepless nights

• We narrowed these down to studies using methods that would not influence the results.
• For instance, we excluded studies that collected insects by using sweep nets or beating branches, as these methods can capture resting insects along with active ones.
• These include pitfall traps (for crawling insects), flight interception traps (for flying insects) and aquatic drift nets (for swimming insects).

Eventually, we honed in on 99 studies published between 1959 and 2022. These studies spanned all continents except Antarctica and encompassed a wide range of habitats on both land and water.

What did we find?

We found more mayflies, caddisflies, moths and earwigs at night. On the other hand, there were more thrips, bees, wasps and ants during the day.

• In these aquatic areas, there could be twice as many insects active during the night.
• In contrast, land-based insects were generally more active during the day, especially in grasslands and savannas.
• We also found insects were more active at night in warmer parts of the globe, where there are higher maximum temperatures.

Findings underscore the threats to nocturnal insects

Insects perform many vital “ecosystem services” such as pollination, nutrient cycling and pest control. Many of these services may be provided at night, when more insects are active. This means we need to curtail some of our own activities to support theirs. For instance, artificial lighting is detrimental to nocturnal insects.

• In the hottest regions of the globe such as the tropics, the warming trend may further reduce the activity of nocturnal insects that struggle to cope with heat.
• Read more:
  Insects will struggle to keep pace with global temperature rise – which could be bad news for humans

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Light and sound shows in parks can enthral crowds with their colour, music and storytelling.
• But unless they are well-located, the shows can also harm wildlife.
• Research shows artificial light, sound and the presence of lots of people at night can harm wildlife.

A history of community opposition

• While they often take place along existing walking trails, they attract huge crowds at a time when animals usually have the place to themselves.
• Most of Australia’s mammals and frogs and many bird and reptile species are nocturnal, or active at night.
• Light shows proposed for other wildlife conservation areas have also faced community opposition.

Light, sounds, action!

• For example, it can change their hormone levels, and the numbers and health of their offspring.
• Light also interferes with the ability of many species to navigate.
• It masks the natural soundscape, making it harder for animals to find mates or hear the calls of their young.
• It can also mask smells vital for an animal’s survival, such as that of food and predators.

Long-term harm

• This cuts in half the time animals have to go about their life-sustaining activities and exposes them to greater risks when they do go out.
• Light and sound shows are usually temporary – but can have major long-term impacts.
• For example, males of the genus Antechinus (small marsupials) live long enough for just one short breeding season.

Find a better location

• Organisers may have minimised impacts where they can, but evidence suggests the impact on wildlife will still be extensive.
• Finding genuinely suitable locations should be done with care – and should avoid wildlife conservation areas altogether.

• Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action.
• Therésa Jones receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is affiliated with NERAL (Network for Ecological Research on Artificial Light).

• Bats count on their secret weapon, echolocation, to find and catch their flying prey, and in response, nocturnal insects have evolved interesting defences.
• Many silk moths, for instance, rely on a kind of sound-absorbing stealth cloak that makes them “disappear” from bat sonar.
• However, scientists have long been puzzled about the many earless moths that cannot detect their predators and are too small for decoys.
• We recently discovered that even earless moths, such as ermine moths (Yponomeuta), use acoustic signals as a defence against bat attacks.

Protective wing beats

When we studied the ermine moth’s wing under a microscope, it became clear that one part of the wing stands out from the rest. While most of it is covered by small hairs and scales, one patch of wing is clear and located adjacent to a corrugated structure of ridges and valleys. In our new study, we found this structure produces sound perfectly tuned to confuse bats.

• As the drum skin is struck by a drumstick, the skin vibrates at its natural frequencies and transmits these vibrations into the surrounding air as sound.
• In ermine moths, the clear patch in the hind wing serves as the drum skin, while the corrugated structure of valleys and ridges act as drumsticks.
• During flight, the moth’s wing makes the ridges snap one after the other in a sequence.
• To our team of biologists and engineers, these wing structures are fascinating because they rely on a mechanism that we teach our engineering students to avoid.

Inspired by nature

• One example is engineers designing morphing structures for future aircraft wings that autonomously adapt their shape to perform better when the environment changes.
• The aeroelastic tymbal of ermine moths embodies this concept and demonstrates how nature can be an inspiration for new technology.

• BB/N009991/1) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant no.
• Alberto Pirrera has received funding for this research from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant no.
• 530777/472285) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Composites for Innovation and Science (grant no.