The sub-wavelength structures in moth eyes exhibit fascinating antireflective properties over the broadband wavelength region and at large incident angle by generating an air-mixed heterogeneous optical interface. In this work, antireflective behavior of transparent glass is observed with the elaborate controls of the nanopillar morphology. The reflectance spectrum shows a red shift and a notab...

1. Two cossid moths, Coryphodema tristis and Chilecomadia valdiviana, have recently become pests on Eucalyptus nitens in South Africa and Chile, respectively. Both C. tristis and C. valdiviana have large host ranges and high levels of similarity in their host distributions. Their infestations of E. nitens are the first records of these moths on Myrtaceae. 2. The contemporaneous adoption of E. n...

Because visual genes likely evolved in response to their ambient photic environment, the dichotomy between closely related nocturnal moths and diurnal butterflies forms an ideal basis for investigating their evolution. To investigate whether the visual genes of moths are associated with nocturnal dim-light environments or not, we cloned long-wavelength (R), blue (B) and ultraviolet (UV) opsin g...

We tested different pheromone-baited traps for surveying winter moth, Operophtera brumata (L.) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), populations in eastern North America. We compared male catch at Pherocon 1C sticky traps with various large capacity traps and showed that Universal Moth traps with white bottoms caught more winter moths than any other trap type. We ran the experiment on Cape Cod, MA, where...

Echolocating bats and eared moths are a model system of predator-prey interaction within an almost exclusively auditory world. Through selective pressures from aerial-hawking bats, noctuoid moths have evolved simple ears that contain one to two auditory neurons and function to detect bat echolocation calls and initiate defensive flight behaviours. Among these moths, some chemically defended and...

The light-emitting diode (LED) street light market is expanding globally, and it is important to understand how LED lights affect wildlife populations. We compared evasive flight responses of moths to bat echolocation calls experimentally under LED-lit and -unlit conditions. Significantly, fewer moths performed 'powerdive' flight manoeuvres in response to bat calls (feeding buzz sequences from ...

Orientational responses of four species of feral tortricid moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) to polyethylene tube dispensers of pheromone were observed in a 0.8 ha apple orchard treated with such pheromone dispensers and in an untreated 0.8 ha orchard. Male oblique-banded leafrollers, Choristoneura rosaceana (Walker) (mean 7.2 ± 0.4 moths/night during 21 nights) , Oriental fruit moths, Grapholit...

Blue jays trained to detect Catocala moths in slides were exposed to two types of slide series containing these moths: series of one species and series of two species intermixed. In one-species series, detection ability increased with successive encounters with one prey type. No similar effect occurred in two-species series. These results are a direct demonstration of a specific search image.

The host preference of the economically important fruit piercing moth, Calyptra lata (Butler 1881), was studied when exposed to different fruits and the odors of those fruits in enclosed feeding assays and in a two-choice olfactometer. The fruits consisted of three ripe and locally available types: raspberries, cherries and plums. Moths were released in cages with the ripened fruit and observed...