Research: Moths are flying later in the year than a century ago

by Jennifer Micale, Binghamton University
March 11, 2026

South of Fall Creek by the edge of the woods, the moths would gather.

They were, of course, drawn by light — set out by a researcher working in Cornell University’s old Insectory building. In 1889, the lure came from a kerosene lantern, the pan underneath collecting the samples. In 1919, a researcher set up another light trap, baited by the orangish glow of an early tungsten bulb.

A team of biologists used datasets both old and new to discover how flight periods of moths in Ithaca, N.Y., have changed over the past century. “Phenological shifts and increases in voltinism within a moth community over a century of anthropogenic change” appeared recently in the journal Ecology; its first author is former Binghamton University undergraduate Emma Foster ’24. Foster is now pursuing a doctorate in plant evolutionary genetics at the University of Michigan; the project began as her undergraduate honors thesis in biological sciences.

“Our overall finding is that moths are flying on average about two and a quarter weeks later in the year,” said Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Eliza Grames, a co-author on the study.

Keep reading: https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/6048/research-moths-are-flying-later-in-the-year-than-a-century-ago

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.70328?af=R