All night long: Activity times of moths as observed at artificial light sources - data

Light pollution negatively affects nocturnal insects with positive phototactic behaviour. At the same time, researchers benefit from insects' positive phototaxis, as such behaviour makes it easy to sample nocturnal insects via light trapping. Getting insights into the peak activity time of nocturnal insects benefits both, conservation biologists who aim to find out, when it is important to reduce artificial light at night, and entomologists who want to get an adequate sample of nocturnal insects. We observed moth communities during five sampling nights in July and August 2022 in the Botanical Garden of Würzburg using a manual light trap. Starting at dusk and ending at dawn the next day, we noted down when exactly each moth arrived at the light trap.光污染会对具有正趋光性（positive phototactic behaviour）的夜行性昆虫（nocturnal insects）产生负面影响。与此同时，研究人员也可借助昆虫的正趋光性开展研究——该特性使得通过灯光诱捕采集夜行性昆虫变得简便易行。 探明夜行性昆虫的活动高峰时段，对两类研究者均大有裨益：一类是旨在确定夜间人工光源减排关键时段的保护生物学家，另一类是希望获取足量夜行性昆虫样本的昆虫学家。本研究于2022年7月至8月间，在维尔茨堡植物园（Botanical Garden of Würzburg）使用手动灯光诱捕装置，对五个采样夜的蛾类群落进行了观测。观测时段自黄昏起始，至次日黎明结束，期间我们详细记录了每一只蛾类抵达诱捕灯的精确时刻。