There are a third fewer moths in the United Kingdom than 40 years ago, the BBC reports today. That’s also bad news for anything that flies around at night looking for insects to eat – bats, for example. All 17 British bat species are protected by law.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme this morning (the interview starts just after 52 minutes into the programme), Richard Fox of Butterfly Conservation commented that we don’t know for sure what’s causing the moth decline, but that intensification of agriculture, urbanization and climate change are probably factors. The same goes for many other British birds, insects and plants – ‘Silent Summer’ a forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press, rounds up the sorry picture for British wildlife across the board. Fox also fingered light pollution as bad news for anything nocturnal.

This is getting attention now because tomorrow night is the UK’s 12th National Moth Night, ‘the UK’s annual celebration of moths and moth recording’. This year, Butterfly Conservation, which runs the event, is teaming up with the Bat Conservation Trust, to try and draw attention to the intertwined plights of the Lepidoptera and Chiroptera. Moth- and bat-spotting events are taking place around the UK, or you can just set up a moth trap and tell the journal Atropos, which is pooling the night’s results, what flies in.

Image: Convulvulus hawk moth (Agrius convolvuli). Mick E. Talbot.