Rocky Mountain National Park is home to a
rich moth and butterfly population. While butterflies are
the glamorous branch of the family, moths are a fascinating
branch. Moths can be differentiated from butterflies by their
"furry" looking antennae, while the antennae of
butterflies are smooth.
Why do moths fly at night? Well, actually,
not all moths fly at night. Some, like the hummingbird (also
called the sphinx) moth, are day-fliers throughout their range
and are often mistaken for butterflies. Many moths in alpine
tundra and other high altitude situations fly only in the
day because they need the warmth of the sun to provide enough
heat to enable them to fly.
One excellent reason for flying at night,
however, is to avoid predation. Fewer predators are looking
for food in moth-sized packages at night. Most flying predators
of insects are sight-predators-- they rely on seeing their
prey. As a result, most birds and flying insect predators
such as dragonflies don't hunt at night. Bats are the major
night-flying predator on moths, and can do so because they
locate their prey using echo-location rather than by sight.
Moths have the advatage of being able to
see exceptionally well at night. Recent research involving
training moths to use colored feeders has demonstrated that
they can see colors on dark nights with only the light of
stars. Humans, in contrast, can detect a few color differences
in bright moonlight, but generally need sunlight to perform
color differentiations as well as moths can by starlight.
Dark night skies protect moths from many predators.
For a list of the scientific names of the
moths documented from the park, please visit Dr. Paul Opler's
Moths
of Rocky Mountain National Park website, hosted by Northern
Prairie Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey.
Please click on the photo captions for larger
pictures
