Scientific reportsMay 23, 2025

Effects of steady and changing artificial night light on moths from areas with different natural night brightness

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Mar 29, 2026

Abstract

Larvae of the moth species Agrotis exclamationis showed faster development and increased body mass under artificial light at night (ALAN).

Moths from populations exposed to varying levels of skyglow were raised in different light conditions: continuous ALAN, dynamic ALAN, or control-dark.
Contrary to previous findings, some larvae exhibited no or positive responses in development when exposed to ALAN.
Dynamic ALAN led to similar or stronger effects on larval growth compared to continuous ALAN.
Under ALAN, A. exclamationis larvae demonstrated increased growth rates, which could lower their risk of parasite exposure.
No evidence was found for evolutionary adaptations in larvae from either low-medium or high-medium skyglow populations.

Simplified

Biodiversity is negatively affected by light pollution, caused by artificial light at night (ALAN). Light-emitting diodes facilitate new lighting technologies to mediate the negative effects of ALAN, such as dynamic ALAN where light intensity can be adjusted to traffic density. Organisms living in highly light-polluted areas may show adaptations to mitigate the negative effects of ALAN. In a split-brood rearing experiment, larvae of two moth species (Ochropleura plecta and Agrotis exclamationis) originating from low-medium and high-medium skyglow populations were grown under either continuous ALAN, dynamic ALAN or control-dark conditions. We tested for ALAN effects on larval mortality, feeding behaviour, development and body mass, and whether effects depended on skyglow levels in the population of origin. Contrary to previous studies, we found either no or positive effects of ALAN on larval development, with similar or stronger effects of dynamic ALAN compared to continuous ALAN. For A. exclamationis, we showed evidence for faster development, increased growth rate and higher body mass under ALAN. This could reduce larval exposure to parasites and increase fecundity. We found no evidence for evolutionary responses in low-medium or high-medium skyglow larvae. Our results show that ALAN does not affect larval development the same way in all species.

Key numbers

2.48

Increase in Growth Rate

Overall growth rate of A. exclamationis under dynamic ALAN treatment

2.56

Higher Pupal Mass

Pupal mass under dynamic ALAN compared to control treatment

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Funding

Competing interests

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

PubMed

Effects of steady and changing artificial night light on moths from areas with different natural night brightness

Abstract

Key numbers

Full Text

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Competing interests

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Abstract

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Full Text

Funding

Competing interests

Related papers

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Recent issues from the circadian biology brief