r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/The_Love-Tap • 2d ago
Video An incredible variety of moths attracted to an illuminated sheet. This technique is called light sheeting
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u/wild_reach2099 2d ago
Spiders be like “send me your location bro”
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u/xombae 2d ago
Yeah I'm wondering how they prevent these moths from being predated while they wait for them to show up.
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u/ClockworkBetta 2d ago
The one time I went when the local moth people put up sheets, there was a very fat, happy spider munching on a moth at the bottom of the sheet
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u/nlamber5 2d ago
Sure it’s eating A moth, but it’s not like it can eat that many.
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u/Young_Kennedy 2d ago
Moths are underrated. They're just as beautiful as Butterflies.
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u/Weak-Differences 2d ago
Moths are just night butterflies.
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u/Liquidmetal7 2d ago
That's literally how they are called in french: Papillon de nuit.
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u/grimeyduck 2d ago
Papillon deez nuts
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u/AbeRego 2d ago
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u/CodeSalamander 2d ago
The internet. Always delivering when I least want it to.
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u/DrUnit42 2d ago
Yeah...I clicked that knowing that I would probably regret it
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u/MoreBeansAndRice 2d ago
This is the first time I've ever hoped that something was AI
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u/DesiBwoy 2d ago
Correction - Butterflies are day Moths. Butterfly families evolved from Moths. All Butterflies are Moths but not all moths are butterflies.
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u/AloneInExile 2d ago
So Moths are the original vampires and Butterflies are daywalkers?!?
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u/Negative_County_1738 2d ago
If given the opportunity, butterflies will quite happily and readily drink blood, so that tracks.
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u/husky0168 2d ago
in Indonesian, "night butterflies" is a slang for prostitutes.
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u/Comrade_Falcon 2d ago
Butterflies stay out of my shit. Moths always end up in the house flitting around right up in my face. Butterflies stay in their lane.
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u/Endless_Zen 2d ago
Not only this. Moths are also fat. If butterfly has a body of an ant the moth has a body of some hairy larvae. And I don't want that on my hand.
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u/admirantes 2d ago
Holy shit. My exact feelings exactly. I can't even think about squashing them since I don't ever want to see the aftermath, but I also don't want them anywhere near me. So whenever one gets inside I have to commit to catching it and releasing it as carefully as possible.
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u/ZealousidealTill2355 2d ago
I was about to say, butterflies are graceful and whimsy while moths are spastic tweakers with a broken GPS.
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u/LilaTheMoo 2d ago
I uses to hate them because I have a horrible fear of flying bugs. Then one day I round myself realizing "Moths can be Goth" and this absurdly stupid thought completely rewrote a longheld fear of moths and butterflies.
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u/CrotalusHorridus 2d ago
Moths are just Goth butterflies
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u/LilaTheMoo 2d ago
Which, in my humble alt opinion, makes them better than butterflies. I mean, just look, they're fuzzier than butterflies and make silk! Clearly S-tier flying bug, while chud butterflies are like a low B, high C tier.
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u/TremendouslyRegarded 2d ago
Always made me wonder how some people can easily let a butterfly land on them and admire them but any other bug besides maybe a ladybug is instant freak out
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u/jspeed04 2d ago
Moths are awesome creatures. I know they can’t hurt anyone, quite literally.
But I don’t know why the larger delta/triangular shaped ones make me more uneasy from a visceral perspective than the even larger butterfly wing shaped one.
I am weird.
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u/SirHenderson 2d ago
This might sound weird, but the uneasy feeling for me comes from imagining what it would be like to hold one in your hand firmly (not to kill it). Something about a bug having a thick bulbous body feels so wrong since we’re conditioned as kids that bugs are small and thin. If that makes sense
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u/MeltyCrab 2d ago
Friendly reminder: Butterflies are AFTER moths. Moths came first and are the OG fluffy flappy buggo. Butterflies came after them in the evolutionary timeline :D
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u/GAN_gamer15 2d ago
They really are, I think they’re beautiful!
Also, they are basically night shift bees (roughly 33% of total pollination is done by moths)
So don’t just protect the bees, protect the moths as well :)5
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u/TomboyKnight1 2d ago
Honestly they're prettier imo. Moths are cute and fuzzy but butterflies are more like fruit flies with bigger wings
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u/birdingwithgoats 2d ago
Totally underrated! There's over 160,000 species of moths, compared to 20,000 butterfly species.
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u/nuevacuentanueva 2d ago
Butterflies are overrated. They're just as ugly as Moths.
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u/Dr-McLuvin 2d ago
That Luna moth is fucking huge.
I found one last year in my front yard but it wasn’t quite that big. Still coolest thing ever.
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u/__i_dont_know_you__ 2d ago
They're beautiful but they make me uncomfortable for some reason. Actually that statement describes this entire video for me.
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u/Old_Imagination4274 2d ago
Moths also make me uncomfortable. Mainly because if they're inside they are prone to flying into your face if you have your phone in a dark room, and Luna Moths being near death freaks me out cause I don't like dead bugs.
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u/That-Warrior9511 2d ago
I don't like dead bugs in general. Moths and even butterflies, both dead and alive, make me uncomfortable. I do admire seeing them from a distance though.
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u/Old_Imagination4274 2d ago
Yeah I agree. I like them from a distance but up close grosses me out.
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u/__i_dont_know_you__ 2d ago
We’ve also had pantry moths in the past so I imagine that’s part of it. I think they’re cool in theory but their lifecycle creeps me out and something about them - especially the gigantic ones - is unnerving.
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u/RosemaryCroissant 2d ago
This is it for me. Even as a kid, moths have been my least favorite bug. Because- they’ll fly right at your face. Other bugs try to avoid people and that helps- but moths in a dark room will dive bomb your face and it’s terrifying.
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u/bozoconnors 2d ago
mottephobia - if it includes butterflies, lepidopterophobia! Say that five times real fast.
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u/Laiko_Kairen 2d ago
I'll have you know I did say it out loud 5 times real fast
But only after messing it up 3-4x
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u/b3tamaxx 2d ago
Maybe Mothra wasn't such a crazy concept
Edit. Oops meant for the person one above you
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u/Strattex 2d ago
If you see one, it’s incredibly rare. They only live 7-10 days. No Digestive system…
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u/I_REALLY_LIKE_BIRDS 2d ago
I'd never seen one in my entire life until I found a little green caterpillar crawling around on my porch. I wasn't planning on keeping it, but there was a big storm coming so I put it in a plastic container with some leaves, and it immediately began building a cocoon. So at that point I was like, well now I have to be responsible for this thing, if I put it somewhere unsafe I'll hate myself. I had given up on it hatching until one morning I opened the container to mist the cocoon and there was a whole, bright green luna moth in there. I cried when I let him go that night, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced.
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u/Angry_Artichoke_0823 2d ago
The large brown one looks like a Hercules moth, one of the three largest along with Luna and Atlas
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u/shishaboob 2d ago
There is no Luna moth on the sheet. The largest one at the bottom right is a hercules moth, native to New Guinea and Northern Australia. The Luna moth is native to North America, so it would have to fly quite a ways to be present for this video.
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u/PM_Me_Modal_Jazz 2d ago
I've never understood why the moths don't just leave when they realize there's nothing there
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u/SomeShithead241 2d ago
Because they are confused. Moths aren't attracted to light, they navigate by it. Primarily by the moon or other stellar bodies. So when humans come around with their bright lights that drown out starlight and are much much closer so it fucks with their instincts, they have trouble navigating.
It's like trying to navigate with a compass next to a magnet.
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u/LyingForTruth 2d ago
They should close their eyes and navigate by smell
Because that thing must smell like sheet35
u/barrsftw 2d ago
I know this is a joke, but they probably are evolving to do this very thing. It'll just take millions of years lol
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u/MrGrieves- 2d ago
Moths exist to fuck though.
Why would they leave this giant orgy they just found even if they found it by confused means?
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u/smokeweedNgarden 2d ago
Darkness is a habitat but humans don't regularly see it that way. As we expand bright ass LED lights past cities and into nature we shrink nocturnal habitats and do harm to beneficial creatures.
Take bats. They eat hundreds of mosquitoes per night, per bat. In the dark. Take away the dark and the sane ones go hunt elsewhere, while the actual sick ones just fly into your house. Turning a disease control into a disease vector.
We should let dark places be dark
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u/Common-Concentrate-2 2d ago
This is like asking why people don't stop eating cake when it's clear that cake will not fill the void in their soul
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u/Spare-Dingo-531 2d ago
They have no abstract representation. They're not smart enough. It's just instinct to them.
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u/DesiBwoy 2d ago
For a wildlife nerd like me, this is heaven. I could spend weeks photographing them and identifying their species and learning quirky and cool things about them.
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u/Victizes 2d ago
They are fascinating aren't they?
Somehow they make my survival instincts activate when they are too near, but aside from that they are fascinating to me.
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u/Doodiecarrier 2d ago
"This technique is called light sheeting"
So, like, just pointing a flashlight at a bed sheet?
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u/Real_Impression_5567 2d ago
In doing some light sheeting now as I scroll reddit
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u/kyngslinn 2d ago
You the kinda person to be like: why is it called 'walking' and not 'moving your leg muscles to move from one place to another'
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u/thewebspinner 2d ago
Where does the word walk come from though?
Doesn’t have anything to do with legs, feet, ankles etc. might as well be called extra low flying with ground contact.
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u/PunsGermsAndSteel 2d ago
The art of walking was named after its inventor, Christopher Walken.
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u/drunkcowofdeath 2d ago
Invented in 1974 when he was moving his leg muscles to move from one place to another and a police officer said "Hey, who are you and what are doing?" and he replied:
"I'm Walken, here."
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u/DigNitty Interested 2d ago
I remember this. Everyone thinks it happened in New York, but it actually happened in Papua New Guinea and everyone was very confused.
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u/BacksightForesight 2d ago
Oddly enough, Walken is apparently correct!
“walk(v.)
"travel on foot," c. 1200, walken, a merging and sense-shift of two verbs: 1. Old English wealcan "to toss, roll, move round" (past tense weolc, past participle wealcen), and 2. wealcian "to roll up, curl." Both are from Proto-Germanic \welk-* (source also of Old Norse valka "to drag about," Danish valke "to full" (cloth), Middle Dutch walken "to knead, press, full" (cloth), Old High German walchan"to knead," German walken "to full"), and perhaps ultimately from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve."”4
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u/username__0000 2d ago
A white wall works too.
A campground I was at had this set up and it was fun to stop by on the way to the bathroom to visit with the moths.
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u/Techi-C 2d ago
I worked as ecology director at a camp and I used to leave one lightbulb on inside the ecology lodge overnight. It wasn’t perfectly sealed, so moths would find their way in overnight and I would spend the whole next day discovering them hiding all over the place. I found and mounted tons of sphinx moths for the eco lodge’s educational insect collection that way.
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u/Goodemi 2d ago
When that burrito hits and you aren't as close to the toilet as you'd wished.
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u/wolfy2526 2d ago
Despite how colorful and diverse they are, I have a phobia of moths. Unfortunately, this video makes my skin crawl 😭 They're so dusty and disgusting
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u/Sam5FrodoB 2d ago
Same I hate moths
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u/Victizes 2d ago
I don't hate moths, but for some reason my survival instincts activate when I'm near them.
Bigger fast bugs normally do that to me.
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u/Laiko_Kairen 2d ago
It's how unpredictable they are, and how unknowable their minds are. Like, with dogs you can read their emotions pretty easily. Even lizards, they're at least a bit predictable
Moths, though? Totally random movements. And in the air, too, so obstacles don't necessarily deter them.
At least that's what it is for me
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u/Thema03 2d ago
They fly straight to our faces for no reason at all.
It's so embarrassing but when i see one i instantly duck in fear of them.
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u/bbbbears 2d ago
Oh god, I’m the same. I just get the absolute creeps and scream and run. I feel so stupid! But it’s like, primal idk.
Not sure if it was because one time a moth flew down my shirt and I couldn’t get it out, and it was just bashing around and around ughhhh I don’t even like thinking about it
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u/Victizes 2d ago
I know right, fam? I can't help it when they start acting crazy, when that happens my brain goes haywire.
But I find them beautiful anyways. I hope you become more resistant to fear over time bro.
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u/Sextus_Rex 2d ago
One night I was camping with some friends and some big bug flew past the lantern while we were playing cards. Freaked me out but we kept playing. Couple minutes later something with weight impacted my leg. I looked down and my shorts were covered in dust.
I've hated moths ever since, they make my skin crawl
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u/Aethesis 2d ago
I love butterflies, moths can be pretty too, and despite this I want neither of them within 20 feet of me minimum. I'm glad to not feel so alone about my fear of moths rn 😭
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u/Sam5FrodoB 2d ago
I used to work shift work in an unconditioned office, at night it would get so hot I'd be forced to open a window... Anyway one night shift I fell asleep (half way through my shift) and a moth the size of a bat smacked me in the face. Yes I see the irony but I've always hated the bastards after that
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u/NoteBlock08 2d ago
I legit recoiled at the close-up of the massive one at the bottom. Beautiful wings, but god I do not like bugs.
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u/Annual-Grocery-261 2d ago
Usually I go to Taco Bell if I want to do some light sheeting
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u/MACHOmanJITSU 2d ago
Obligatory Norm McDonald moth joke https://youtube.com/shorts/OihZE4eXuig?si=gSTITOzoGz4wGv_p
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u/spezial_ed 2d ago
While travelling in Thailand, we forgot to turn off the light and ceiling fan - came home to prob thousands of moths either chopped to pieces or flying about in our bungalow. My friends started trying to catch them all, and I just turned off the light and put a flashlight under the door un the outside, so it lit up the gap under the door. 2 minutes later, completely moth free.
My smartest moment ever-
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u/InvictvsNox 2d ago
I would love this. Moths are so cute and pretty. Not sure why people dislike this.
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u/inarhtimol 2d ago
Because their flight is not predictable and they end up in your face / killing themselves on a lamp in a terrible sound
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u/Toadfish91 2d ago
Is not liking the irregular flight pattern a thing? I feel the same way
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u/inarhtimol 2d ago
I suppose it's some sort of evolutionary thing that we don't want insect going into our eyes/orifices. I think it's the same thing why we don't give a shit about ladybugs but we hate cockroach, if you look at them closely they aren't much different but one has a predictable flight and is slow and the other one doesn't. I would love if an entomologist here had some sort of explanation :)
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u/AsstBalrog 2d ago edited 2d ago
I suppose it's some sort of evolutionary thing that we don't want insect going into our *
eyes/*orifices.Speak for your branch of the tree...
More seriously, though, you raise a good point about ladybugs and roaches. I used to have a natural fish tank, including a 1" snapping turtle. He ignored most things, just didn't move at all, until I dumped in the 1" crayfish I had seined up.
His head swiveled, his gaze locked on one, and from then on, until he had killed them all, he was on an unflinching mission. Something about their shape or the movement of their gills or legs spoke to his reptilian (hah!) brain.
It kind of reminded me of the first Alien movie. John Hurt goes onto the alien ship, and he encounters those pods or whatever. The cover slides back, and there is this movement, exceedingly well done by the SFX team, this irregular, flickering motion that just signals "biological" or "life." I think something like that was what my turtle was responding to.
Anyway, I'm saying that you're probably right about the evo thing, but it's more fine grained than you suggest. Somehow roaches signal disgust or danger, but those cute widdle beetles do not.
Source: Not an entomologist
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u/A_Evil_Grain_of_Rice 2d ago
That's awesome, but the term "light sheeting" is absolutely frying me, lmao. Sounds like someone's excuse for soiling their pants
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u/merpixieblossomxo 2d ago
This is terrifying. I don't know why butterflies are fine to me but moths are every nightmare of mine come to life, but that would give me a fucking heart attack to witness.
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u/Destruction126 2d ago
Nah SpongeBob made me see Butterflies differently. That close up with the buzzing sounds gave me nightmares.
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u/The_Dynasty_Warrior 2d ago
As I get older I get to appreciate the beauty of nature and the diversity within species
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u/Inexorably_lost 2d ago edited 2d ago
Spider, in it's empty web just out of frame, looking super jealous.
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u/The_Love-Tap 2d ago
Here are some of the moths seen in the video
Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas): Visible clearly at the bottom left (0:00–0:01) and again in detail at the bottom (0:19–0:21). Recognized by its massive size, reddish-brown wings, and distinctive hooked wingtips with snake-head mimicry patterns.
Imperial Moth / Yellow Saturniid (Eacles imperialis / Eacles sp.): Prominently featured in close-ups (0:10–0:11, 0:24). Easily identified by its bright yellow wings adorned with brownish-purple spots and wave-like markings.
Sphinx / Hawk Moths (Family Sphingidae): Large, aerodynamic, grey and dark-brown moths seen in close-up segments (0:08–0:09, 0:23, 0:26–0:27), characterized by sleek, pointed wings held close to the body.
Luna / Moon Moths (Actias species): Pale green, long-tailed moths visible scattered across the sheet (0:13–0:14, 0:23).
Geometer and Tiger Moths (Families Geometridae & Erebidae): Dozens of smaller yellow, orange, white-spotted, and patterned brown moths coating the sheet surface.
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u/Angry_Artichoke_0823 2d ago
Atlas moths dont usually have those long tails, I thought it was a Hercules moth
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u/PyramidicContainment 2d ago
It's an AI summary so you can safely ignore at least half of the info there
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u/Angry_Artichoke_0823 2d ago
Thank you, I suspected as much after I re-read it and rewatched the video, I'm pretty sure there aren't any Luna moths in the video either lol
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u/XROOR 2d ago
The first time I spent the night at a house I acquired in the rural countryside of Virginia; I thought someone or something was attempting to open my aluminum storm door….turns out it was the humongous moths that looked like the old Strawberry and Vanilla swirled lolli’s from Brach’s candy
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u/WakingOwl1 2d ago
We did that one year for the annual Biodiversity survey and identified fifty kinds of moths.
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u/WeezerHunter 2d ago
This always reminds me of the story of ecologist Daniel Janzen. In the 70's he was on a trip in Costa Rica when he took a fall in a ravine and broke his ribs on his backside in the middle of the jungle. With no one else around and unable to call for help, he crawled back to his research hut and tied himself to a chair on the porch for a month while his ribs healed. While on the porch, he rigged up a light sheet experiment and took photos each night. The sheet was nearly completely covered in insects. He went back in 2019 and did the same experiment at the same place, and the results showed that most of the insects are gone, even in the middle of the Costa Rican rainforest, where human caused population collapse should be at a minimum. Its a somber and incredible story about the ongoing collapse of the bug population, but its a good read. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/03/climate-species-collapse-ecology-insects-nature-reserves-aoe
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u/FitPreparation2884 2d ago
Anybody know where this is? So many different moths. I’m curious where such a variety exists