'Endangered' Luna Moths

Chris Raper triocomp at dial.pipex.com
Sun Sep 21 14:32:10 EDT 1997


On Wed, 17 Sep 1997 06:43:36 GMT, ae779 at lafn.org (Pierre A Plauzoles)
wrote:
>In a previous article, triocomp at dial.pipex.com (Chris Raper) says:
>>On 15 Sep 1997 21:32:51 -0500, lday at iquest.net wrote:
>>>An added point is that the moth may be doing fine in much of its range,
>>>but if you're a 10-year-old kid who likes bugs, and luna has been
>>>extirpated from the area where you live, it doesn't do you much good!
>>Mmm - I like elephants but I don't expect to see them roaming the
>>fields around the UK countryside - unless there has been a breakout
>>from a Safari Park!  :-)

>the luna and several other species of saturniids, and very possibly other
>families as well, have actually lost considerable ground in urban
>settings due to the abundant use here in the US of mercury vapor lights
>for street and space lighting - or so it is said.

MV Street lights? Sounds a recipe for disaster to me :-(

>I don't know how it is in Europe, but I suspect similar conditions
>probably exist.

I don't think we use MV lights for street light here (I could be
wrong). You do get moths etc attracted to lights but not in any
significant numbers to affect the breeding success. There have been
worries about male Glow Worms being thrown off course by street lights
in their hunt for glowing females.

Cheers
Chris R.



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