Increasing artificial illumination during night has multifaceted effects on species. Moths are shown to be distracted and attracted by artificial light sources, leading to increased mortality through predation or exhaustion. Increased mortality can be expected to increase selection pressure on morphology, particularly those being functional in light detection and flight ability. We were thus interested if intraspecific traits differ between areas and times with differing light pollution values. We chose the moth Agrotis exclamationis, a common species in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Germany, a region that offers very different levels of light pollution across space and time. We examined body length, eye size and forewing length, traits likely targeted through selection due to light pollution. We examined moths collected over the past 137 years. We predicted decreasing forewing length, body and eye size, in response to increasing light pollution and expected to see trait changes from the past to today, and from rural to urban areas, representing temporal and spatial gradients of increasing light pollution. In order to determine current levels of light pollution, we used radiance values of the years 2012 to 2019. These values were the base to extrapolate previous radiance values for all sample sites and years. We observed no trait differences along the spatial gradient, but trait and sex dependant changes along the temporal gradient. We could not confirm a direct causal link between changes in body size and female eye size. However, we revealed indirect effects of light pollution, and assume habitat fragmentation and host-plants to be the main drivers for these effects. A trend towards smaller-eyed females in ‘medium’ and ‘high’ light-polluted areas over time could be a first indication that morphological trait changes to light pollution are taking place.

在夜间增加人工照明会对物种产生多方面的影响。飞蛾会被人造光源分心和吸引，通过捕食或疲惫导致死亡率增加。预计死亡率的增加会增加对形态学的选择压力，特别是那些在光探测和飞行能力方面发挥作用的形态。因此，我们感兴趣的是，不同光污染值的地区和时间之间的种内特征是否不同。我们选择了蛾Agrotis exclamationis，德国柏林 - 勃兰登堡地区的一种常见物种，该地区在不同空间和时间提供非常不同的光污染水平。我们检查了体长、眼睛大小和前翅长度，以及由于光污染而可能通过选择作为目标的特征。我们检查了过去 137 年收集的飞蛾。我们预测前翅长度、身体和眼睛大小会随着光污染的增加而减少，并预计会看到从过去到今天、从农村到城市地区的性状变化，代表光污染增加的时间和空间梯度。为了确定当前的光污染水平，我们使用了 2012 年至 2019 年的辐射值。这些值是推断所有样本点和年份之前辐射值的基础。我们没有观察到沿空间梯度的性状差异，但是性状和性别依赖会沿着时间梯度发生变化。我们无法确认体型变化和女性眼睛大小之间的直接因果关系。然而，我们揭示了光污染的间接影响，并假设栖息地破碎化和寄主植物是这些影响的主要驱动因素。随着时间的推移，在“中等”和“高”光污染区域出现小眼睛雌性的趋势可能是光污染的形态特征正在发生变化的第一个迹象。