Moths circling a lamp are not simply aiming at it. What flight reflex gets hijacked?

Answer: Back-to-light leveling

Moon-distance math — Close to an older idea, but weaker. The moon-navigation story says insects keep a constant angle to distant celestial light, which fails near a lamp. The 3D flight data instead showed insects turning their dorsal side toward the light, producing loops without direct steering toward it. Distance still matters because nearby point lights are abnormal, but the measured reflex is body orientation. That is why shielding a lamp can help even when the ground remains lit.

Heat-seeking escape — No. Heat can attract or harm some insects near flames, but electric streetlights do not need to be hot to disrupt flight. The Nature Communications study tested artificial light as a visual orientation problem. Insects were not escaping heat; they were misreading where 'up' was. This makes LEDs relevant even though they are cooler than old flames or incandescent bulbs.

Back-to-light leveling ✓ — Correct. The newer explanation is not that insects love lamps, but that they use the brightest part of the visual field as 'up.' Under the natural sky, keeping the back toward the bright hemisphere helps stabilize flight. A nearby lamp moves that cue sideways or below, so the insect banks, orbits, or stalls. The transferable fact: a point light can break a control system that works beautifully under a diffuse sky.