The lights that illuminate your patio, balcony or garden at night harm the growth of caterpillars. These fixtures completely change the biological cycles of these insects and therefore of other species that depend on them. Because these lights clear the way for predators to find caterpillars that have not yet grown enough to do their job. Another consequence of this light pollution is a growing problem affecting astronomy, human recreation as well as natural speciesRequires darkness to develop properly.
Small caterpillars often have enough resources to escape from birds, arthropods or other insects. Until they develop their wings and begin to fly, they drag their bodies between the leaves they camouflage from the leaves, like moths anyway. But when LED lights illuminate the area, They are exposed and are easy food for predators.
These results are the results of a study conducted by Cornell University (USA) and published in the USA. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences. Using realistic replicas of these insects made of soft clay, the researchers found a correlation between nighttime lighting and the survival of these insects.
To reach this conclusion, Scientists placed more than 550 small copies of these insects in a forest to assess their predators’ hunting patterns, with or without the influence of artificial light.. “We measured the predation rates of these seemingly real clay caterpillars,” summarizes researcher John Deitsch, first author of the paper. They soon realized that the hunters were “leaving marks on the clay.” caterpillars what they choose to satisfy their appetites.
The replicas used were colored green to mimic the body and size of two different caterpillars: noctuidae (little owl moths) and notodontidae (pronounced moths). The scientists chose these two species because they are the most common in the forest chosen for the experiments: Hubbard Brook. Located between the UK cities of Woodstock, Ellsworth and Thornton, this site functions as a large open-air laboratory and is ideal for such experiments.
After rescuing the caterpillar models, they realized that There were differences in the grooves marked by the predators, depending on whether their location was more or less illuminated..
27% more with light from streetlights
552 clay caterpillars placed on different types of plants At the end of the experiment, 521 samples were obtained. Of these, 249 (47.8%) showed signs of predation.. However, in areas where the light is at streetlight intensity (10 to 15 lux brightness), predation rates 27% higher more than the general norm in the forest.
“Actually, when you turn on a light on a porch, you suddenly see a bunch of insects there,” says Sara Kaiser of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
This research demonstrates once again the damage that light pollution does to nature, as it not only affects the way we look at the starry sky or people’s sleep at night, but also exposes wildlife to new dangers.
Reference article: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.0153
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