Kim Dinan: Night Magic is one of the first books to address the importance of nocturnal biodiversity. What’s the most surprising thing you learned about the nighttime?
Leigh Ann Henion: Darkness is often used to symbolize death, so exploring night as a place teeming with beautiful, non-nefarious lifeforms is, as a quest, kind of surprising at every turn. Also, it’s astounding to consider that much of the world we view in daylight is made possible by the nuance of what takes place in the dark — from bird migration to moth pollination. I think, ultimately, one of the things I found most surprising was how deeply undervalued natural darkness is as habitat.
KD: What role does nocturnal biodiversity play in pollination and the food we eat?
LAH: Nocturnal pollinators like bats and moths are unsung heroes. But, like many animals active at night, they have reputations that tend to make people squirm.
If you do an internet search on moths, the first things you’ll see are articles on how to kill them before they eat clothes in your closet. People don’t tend to think of moths as crucial to food chains — if anything, the mention of moths tends to evoke visions of crop-destroying pests. There are, of course, examples of crops being decimated by invasive moths, but there has been research that indicates that moths’ pollination work is vastly underestimated.
Moths have been found to complement bee pollination, taking on the night shift, and they have been found to be exceptionally efficient pollinators, crucial for crops including apples. They are — even as caterpillars — an important food source for bats, birds, and small mammals. And, in addition to all the issues faced by daytime pollinators, moths have the additional challenge of rising light pollution.
Despite their dull reputations, moths are quite charismatic once you get to know them. Like a lot of nocturnal creatures, they deserve more positive PR!
KD: How can readers discover more about the nighttime biodiversity in their own backyards?
LAH: Sitting in complete darkness without purposeful distraction is so rare that doing that, almost anywhere, is bound to lead to some sort of discovery. But that’s often harder than it sounds! I think it’s difficult, at first, to believe that your own neighborhood has night life to offer that you don’t already know about. We’ve been so acculturated to think of darkness as a space of nothing that it can sometimes be hard to conceptualize that it might hold living riches. In a lot of ways, Night Magic is my journey of working through that personally.
Sometimes local or regional organizations can help act as guides. In some parts of the country, there are established moth-ing groups (the moth-loving equivalent of birders). In others, you can find garden clubs that have a focus on night-blooming flowers. Bioluminescent creatures are particularly charismatic, and — even if you don’t have fireflies in your area — it’s likely that there’s something of interest glowing in your home region.
These local opportunities can help people who might be nervous about spending more time in the dark begin to think about night as a place of wondrous rather than potentially terrifying discoveries. Mini-quests like moth-ing and tide chasing can also help people start to believe that there might be beauty in the dark corners of their own neighborhood.
