Vanessa at night

[Niklas Wahlberg]

At 10:12 18.01.2002 -0800, Paul Cherubini wrote:
>Niklas Wahlberg wrote:
> >
> > Paul,
> > You forget one thing, humans can't see in the dark.
>
>What?  On warm, starry, moonlit nights?

Yep, on warm starry nights with a full moon. How many moths have you 
identified to species, genus, family, without an artificial light after the 
sun has gone down? How many moths have you seen actually flying without any 
source of artificial light? I remember as a kid going out to catch 
hawkmoths buzzing around flowers around midsummer in Finland (where it 
doesn't get dark at night in summer). Never the less, around an hour before 
the true midnight (not taking into account daylight saving time), it was 
too murky to see eg Sphinx ligustri (that's much bigger than a Painted 
Lady) flying against the lilacs. Perhaps they weren't flying anymore? ;-)

Cheers,
Niklas
>

Niklas Wahlberg
Department of Zoology
Stockholm University
S-106 91 Stockholm
SWEDEN

Phone: +46 8 164047
Fax:   +46 8 167715

http://www.zoologi.su.se/research/wahlberg/


 
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