1870.] BELL — PLANTS OB* NEWFOUNDLAND. ()1 



carried us homeward-bouud, through the imposiDg portals of the 

 Bay of Islands. 



WHY ARE INSECTS ATTRACTED BY ARTIFICIAL 



LIGHTS? 



. By A. S. Ritchie. 



This question has given rise to many speculative answers, — 

 none of which as yet are generally satisfactory. 



Mr. Guy on writes thus in Science Gossip ^ : — "If a room 

 were thoroughly darkened, with the exception of a small opening, 

 such as a key-hole, through which the outer daylight was allowed 

 to enter, such an aperture would appear from within, by contrast, 

 almost as bright as the flame of a candle, and any winged insects 

 enclosed in such a room would be pretty certain to direct their 

 flight to the opening. Moths in a room are probably under a 

 sense of being lost and confined, and as bees hurry up and down 

 the window, so nocturnal lepidoptera knock against the ceiling, or 

 dash into the candle flame, perhaps equally with the impulse to 

 escape. Insects seem to be under a fixed impression that the 

 direction of the light is the way out." The same author writes : 

 " The idea has often occurred to me — though it may be rather a 

 fanciful one, — that possibly the insects might regard the flame as 

 light shining from an aperture through which they might make 

 their escape, — somewliat as children imagine the stars to be pin- 

 holes in the sky." 



These remarks, so far as we understand them, do not tell us 



what brings insects from their various haunts into our rooms. 

 They only prove that these creatures prefer light to darkness, 

 — a very natural conclusion, we think, seeing that nature has 

 supplied them with well-developed eyes. 



The second answer given to the question runs as follows : — 

 " Most of the night-loving insects are so affected by the sudden 

 appearance of light, that when a candle is introduced, they rush 

 madly into the flame as though they were deliberately inclined 

 to commit suicide." • • • <' The true cause of this proceeding 

 has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It has been suggested 



* Yol. for 1869, page 57. 



