Creatures of the Night: Moths

September 10, 2025

By: Erin Parker, Interpretive Services Supervisor

While summer lingers on the calendar and in our beautiful weather, autumn and the longer, darker nights are right around the corner. While we may regret the earlier (and earlier) onset of dark and retreat indoors to our well-lit homes, there are many animals that rely on darkness for their daily lives. We’re kicking off a short series celebrating these creatures of the night to explore some of the various ways that wildlife utilize the dark.

The Night Shift
With goldenrod, asters, coneflowers, and more in full bloom during these late summer days, our attention is captured by the diversity of butterflies and bees- and for good reason. These day-flying pollinators are fueling up before the arrival of the first hard frost and winter weather to follow. But the activity continues after dark, as moths and nocturnal pollinators start seeking their own food sources. The ecological “night shift” in our own backyards is often hidden from view as we humans head indoors right as these animals get active, but they’re just as important as those we see during the day.

While we may think of moths as being tiny and dull-colored, they are a diverse group that come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. This rose hooktip moth, found at Stony Creek Metropark Nature Center, feeds on birch and viburnum plants as a caterpillar.

Not only are the moths a critical group of pollinators- they are attracted to flowers that open at night and to light-colored flowers that the daytime visitors may overlook. Moths are also a food source for bats, screech owls, small rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and even fish. Moth species aren’t just a part of the food chain as adults, either. During their larval stage, moth caterpillars feed songbirds- especially during the nesting season when baby birds are hungry and growing rapidly.

Fall Frenzy

Like their day-flying relatives, moths are fueling up and full of activity in the late summer and early autumn as they prepare for winter. Many of them will lay eggs before they die, leaving the next generation to survive as tiny, protected eggs that will hatch out in the warm days of spring. Others will overwinter as adults, tucking themselves under bark and logs to wait out the cold. A few will spend the winter as a caterpillar and others in their cocoon or pupa case, in the leaf litter or under the ground. All of these strategies require eating as much as they can to be ready for the upcoming cold season.

Wooly bear caterpillars, like this one crossing the path at Dexter-Huron Metropark, are the larval stage of a moth called the Isabella tiger moth. The caterpillars are on the move throughout the fall in southeast Michigan as they seek a protected place to overwinter. Come spring, they’ll complete their metamorphosis and emerge as a moth. Folklore has it that wooly bear coat colors predict the upcoming winter (more likely that they simply have a wide range of coloration and patterning!)

In Disguise

Moths and their caterpillars are such an important part of the food chain that many have evolved to blend in, trick potential predators, and even mimic other animals to scare away any curious critters that might be tempted by a moth or caterpillar snack. While most kids won’t be interested in dressing up as a twig or a pile of bird droppings for Halloween, these are common disguises used by moths and caterpillars.

Other moths are mottled like bark, lichen, and other surfaces and utilize this camouflage as protection from visual predators.

At first glance, the beautiful wood nymph moth looks like a pile of bird droppings which keeps potential predators away. Many moth caterpillars look like tiny twigs to avoid detection by birds and other hungry critters.

Big, Bold, and Beautiful

While some moths are experts at hiding away, a lot of moths are big and bold! Though they have a reputation as being small, dull in color, and encountered as pests in our pantries and hall closets. But the moths are a huge, diverse group of organisms and there are nearly 10 times as many moth species as there are butterfly species on the planet. Moths come in a huge range of sizes, shapes, and colors. And while few are considered pest species, particular in agriculture, many others don’t even eat at all as adults- living just a few days to mate, lay eggs, and start the cycle over again.

The rosy maple moth’s bright pink and yellow colors are more often associated with our perceptions of day-flying butterflies instead of night-flying moths. This coloration, though bold, may help them blend in with the pink and pale green colors of red maple samaras (helicopter seeds) as red maple is one of their preferred larval host plants!

The differences between moths and butterflies are actually few- and coloration doesn’t come into the equation. Moths typically have fatter, fuzzier bodies; the antennae of butterflies are usually tipped with a ball or club while moth antennae range from straight to huge, feathery plumes; and butterflies often land with their wings closed above their back while moths spread their wings over their bodies. Most moths are nocturnal but some are day-flying like the butterflies! With differences this small, it seems like moths are undeserving of their negative reputation especially when butterflies are so universally beloved.

The feathery antennae on this luna moth mark it as a male. Female lunas (and many other moth species)have thin antennae that lack the “club” of their butterfly cousins

Taking Action for Creatures of the Night

There are a variety of actions we can all do to help moths and other creatures of the night survive and thrive. Like all pollinators, moths require native flowers for nectaring and their caterpillars require host plants for eating.

Reducing chemicals, including pesticides, helps keep populations healthy and thriving. Because moths feed so many other species, this also helps keep songbirds, bats, and other backyard animals healthy, too.

Many moths, including the silkworm moths like luna, overwinter in leafy-looking cocoons that are mixed into the leaf litter on the forest floor. If you remove your leaves or shred them, next year’s moths are destroyed in the process. Using leaf litter as mulch in your garden beds instead of removing it can preserve your lawn and your moths.

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