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My neurobiology courses were some decades ago, but as far as I remember (and our cutting-edge knowledge was at the time), the orientation workes on a neuronal level already wired in the ocelli. Electric light overshoots the necessary input on several ocelli at once, leading to a unavoidable signal in the neurons behind these, and thus leads to a hard-wired reaction - orientation towards the light source.
If my recollection isn’t dimmed by time, this would mean an adaptive response on an individual level is impossible, and on a population level at least quite unlikely. While this is a strong driver, an evolutionary response would need to change something on a very basic level: how a stimulus is summed by the organs which receive it.
I will try to watch that video later and see if they mention something on that line.
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So now it’s jeans, t-shirts and treated velos with vetted family kilt patterns (but smaller because the wool’s all shrunk,) right?
StraightDope.com citer >Something to do with Mach bands.
I was all ready to hear weeks’ worth of bands that used a distortion pedal/playing that made their songs sound like a strictly military power aerodrome on a busy day. Maybe spread out over a year so my ears still work.
But I found the passage near the end:
A Mach band, which apparently is common to all sighted creatures, is the region surrounding a bright light that seems darker than any other part of the sky.
DuckDuckSure! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLG7xoD9c98 (Mach Rider (game OP, .JP))
https://www.complex.com/music/2018/05/underground-rappers-you-should-know/mach-hommy
https://soundcloud.com/mach-one-music [APLPHONIC and Minerva, plus a Stephen Webster]
If you don’t disdain because of the first frass to soil the lettuces and other mustards, and you don’t retcon all your digs to have crazy can’t afford plaster ventilation out of pauper posery or wanting all your apartment renovations to use just plants (maybe the same thing,) then you’re not going to track the bugs in to extent that occasional cedar oil in the closet isn’t enough of a warding.
[hides around corner while people who saw the Netflix^WAmazon’s The Tick wind up corrections]
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That’s lateral inhibition for you.
And “all sighted creatures” is a bit of an overstatement. Even Euglena has some “sight”.
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There are many kinds of moths, and only one common kind which eats wool:
There are other moth pests, which eat grains, flour and seed and many more moths which are not pests, pollinate flowers, etc…
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Around here, the boss toad of the yard sits under the garage light or front steps during the summer evenings until the timer switches off.
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Yes, only one kind of moth, though interestingly there are other kinds of insects which damage clothing, too (which is just to say that when people do find holes eaten in their clothes, it may not actually be moths):
Everybody’s gotta eat something!
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I’m slow to kill spiders inside the house, because I don’t want to find out which critters they’ve been keeping in check.
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Not in my area, unfortunately. Both Cecropia and Luna populations have been declining steadily since I was a child. In fact the last three Lunas I have encountered were dying at the base of large light poles (I collected them, and probably still have them, all battered and torn - I’ll see if I can find pics but I have BBS blocked on most of my computers).
If they aren’t endangered on a global scale, though, that’s great news - thank you! Hopefully the area around me where they are declining is small. They are very beautiful.
Growing up i used to see large beautiful moths, not super regularly but you’d see one once or twice a year. Then after a certain point i just didn’t see them at all. The thought of these moths being wiped out really bums me out, they’re really cool creatures.
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I don’t understand why Nat Geo doesn’t then mention ways to avoid this. Most people seem not to know that you can easily buy light bulbs that are of a yellow cast that does NOT attract bugs. I have one–bought at Home Depot–and it works. I don’t have that swarm outside my front door. So I also don’t have that occasional one that dives in the door when I open it, and flies around awhile until it dies. Do yourself–and bugs a favor–and get this bulb.
Indian Flour Moths will also eat cotton clothing when there preferred foods of grain and grain products aren’t available.
Some time ago, someone here recommended World’s Best Cat Litter. I’ve been using it ever since, but one of the first bags I bought had a bunch of corn moths fly out of it when I opened it (the stuff’s made out of ground corn cobs). After that I noticed that they vacuum-sealed the bags more tightly and I never noticed the moths again.
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