Moon phase gave no common change in temperature slopes of moth catches in England and Scotland in 1993-2015

We tested whether lunar phase changed the night-temperature slope of moth light-trap catches. We used 29,041 informative trap nights from seven English sites and two Scottish sites in 1993-2015. Four separate models controlled each trap-week catch level, rain, wind and net radiation. Full-minus-new moon slope estimates were +0.002, +0.000, +0.043 and +0.070 log catch per C. The later Scottish four-test interval was +0.009 to +0.132. The other three intervals included zero. The later Scottish interval also included zero with cloud interaction terms or three-day controls. Thus, these records did not support a common lunar change in the temperature slope. This does not show that lunar phase has no effect. Phase was approximate, Scotland had few sites, and catch data cannot separate flight, attraction to light, emergence and abundance. The package gives the fixed input panel, source hashes, code, all results and numerical checks. It tests a source of observation bias, not a causal climate or air pollution effect.

moth · observation bias · temperature · lunar phase · light trap · regional replication