if a moth is attracted to laser-excited phosphor, is that LEPidoptera
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@hananc moths' navigation sense is actually a whole lot more complicated than that, but yes, the reason they fly in circles around bright lights is thought to be that it prevents them from establishing a consistent frame of reference. (I say "thought to be" because, surprisingly, we only have a couple of reasonably conclusive studies from the last decade as evidence)
@gsuberland I remembered I saw it on Youtube and after some searching and clicking found the research.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.11.536486v1.full.pdf
The published paper is in Nature so naturally (sorry) it's behind a paywall.
@gsuberland It's a good geeky joke but I have a sad "actually" that I have recently learned.
Moths and other flying insects are not attracted to light. Artificial light tricks their internal navigation system that is based on the direction of natural lights in the sky.