Moths and other stuff

My friend Carrie asked me the other day what moths did before Thomas Edison. I said that they probably flew around gas lamps and perhaps candles. Maybe they all flew into space towards the moon, and there is indeed a moth ring, built up over thousands of years, orbitting the planet. Indeed, in ancient times, they may just have flown in their droves into active volcanoes. You could argue that Edison was just as important in the moth world as in ours. It certainly made being a moth much less dangerous.

However, the one thing I have NEVER understood is that if moths like the light so much, why don't they simply fly around during the day?

And another thing. After my previous rant about birds being crap, it was countered that birds are indeed not crap because they can fly. Well, moths can also fly, and no one thinks they're particularly brilliant. As can wasps. And midges and billy witches (mayflies to anyone not from Suffolk). In fact, I remember clearly when the billy witch invasion would come each year, we would all run inside screaming "quick! If they get in your hair, you have to cut your hair off to get them out!" And then go back outside with our tennis rackets. Although I never actually heard of anyone who actually had to have their hair cut as a result of a billy witch. Maybe they were confusing them for chewing gum.

But I digress. The point is, birds need to do more than just fly to impress me. And someone needs to come up with a reason as to why moths come out only at night. And where they stay during the day. I mean, you never see moths during the day. Perhaps they just hang around in a state of permanent ecstasy until it gets dark, and then, like some crazy light junkie, they go off getting short bursts of their light 'fix' wherever they can.