By Susan Milius
Add dodging death, flirting and mothering to the tasks artificial light can discombobulate in wild animals.
Street lights take away the street smarts from normally wary moths, researchers reported this year. When bathed in LED illumination, free-flying moths are less likely to plunge or spiral downward at the sound of an incoming predatory bat (SN Online: 8/4/15).
Artificial illumination also misleads female cabbage moths into skimping on production of their usual sex pheromone lure. Instead they make an odd blend with too much of the components that repel rather than seduce (SN: 6/13/15, p. 9).