A streetlight may make a dark road seem safer and easier to navigate; but for the insects living alongside that road, the same light could be affecting what takes place after sunset. When researchers looked at roadside habitats in England they came across something difficult to ignore: hedgerows located under LED streetlights had 52% fewer moth caterpillars than those nearby hedgerows which were not illuminated. However, a similar difference was observed with traditional sodium lighting, in this case, the effect was apparently smaller.
The observation adds to growing concern over light pollution and what happens when artificial light reaches habitats that would normally be dark at night. Since moth caterpillars stay close to where they live, they may provide scientists a much clearer picture of how streetlights are affecting local insect populations.
