Mothlight Wiki · Zombie Digital Software

Mothlight wiki

Everything in Mothlight: crafting recipes, the 32 wild moths, your Lumen companion, riding, rearing and the journal.

Overview

A moth mod for Minecraft 1.21.11 / NeoForge 21.11.48. It adds glowing companion moths you raise from eggs, ride when they're grown, and a world full of real-world wild moths to find, catch, keep in jars and breed.

Timings: eggs, cocoons and growing up each take about an in-game day. Server owners can switch to fast DEV timings (about 2 minutes per stage) for testing or events with the timings setting (see For server owners).

Everything below comes straight from the mod: the recipes are its real recipe files and the pictures are in-game shots.

Crafting recipes

Every crafting recipe in Mothlight. Hover a slot to see the item. "Any planks" and "Any wool" take every kind.

Moth Net

String, Stick

Right-click a wild moth while you carry an empty Moth Jar to catch it.

Moth Jar

Any planks, Glass → 2

Holds a caught moth. Place it as a living lantern; it sheds wing scales. Two jars of a species breed.

Moth Sheet

Stick, White Wool

A 3 x 2 sheet on posts. Light it at night and moths settle all over the cloth.

Moth Journal

Shapeless: Book, String, Glow Berries

Logs every species you catch, with a picture, habitat, habits and a real-world fact.

Rearing Jar

Glass, Any planks, Stick, Dirt

Scoop up a caterpillar and watch the whole metamorphosis, from leaf-munching to emerging.

Lantern Nectar

Shapeless: Glass Bottle, Glow Berries, Honeycomb

Feed 3 to a fully grown, tamed Lumen and it grows into a rideable Great Lumen.

Silk Saddle

Any wool, String, Leather

Use on a Great Lumen to ride it. Shears take it off again.

Silk Saddle (from Moth Silk)

Moth Silk, String, Leather

Use on a Great Lumen to ride it. Shears take it off again.

Moth Cocoon

Shapeless: Glow Lichen, String, Amethyst Shard

Use on a block to release a new tamed Lumen with a random look.

String

Shapeless: Moth Silk → 3

Moth Silk from hatched cocoons turns into string.

Moth Hood

Moth Silk

Wear it. Press G to slide the goggles down for moth vision. Weave in 4 wing scales of one species for that moth's look.

Moth Shawl

Moth Silk

Wear it: it opens into wings in the air and glides like an elytra. Weave in 4 wing scales of one species for that moth's look.

Items you find

Moth Silk

Dropped when a cocoon hatches (1-2). Crafts into string or a Silk Saddle.

Wing Scales

Shed by moths in jars (right-click the jar) or dropped by wild moths. Most craft into a dye.

Moth Egg

Laid by two tamed Lumens fed glow berries. Hatches into a Lumen caterpillar.

Cocoon

Spun by a full-grown caterpillar. A moth hatches from it.

Lumen, your companion moth

Lumen is a "Lanternwing" moth: dusky violet wings, a cream furry body, feathery antennae and a glowing lantern tail.

Taming: feed it glow berries. A tamed Lumen follows you, and sneak + right-click makes it sit or perch.
Looks: each Lumen has a wing pattern and a glow colour. Its eyes, tail and pattern glow at night.
- Patterns: Spotted, Veined, Banded, Eyed, Starry.
- Glow colours: Mint (most common), Amber, Crimson, Azure.
Vesper: the rare Mothman form. Charcoal, jagged wings, red eyes and red eyespots. It shows up 1 time in 256, or about half the time when a parent is Vesper.
Warning chime: a tamed Lumen within 16 blocks of you chimes when a hostile mob gets within 12 blocks of you, and sends a short trail of glow dust toward it. Vesper's chime is deeper and its trail is soul fire. It chimes at most every 5 seconds, and not while sitting.
Waypoint dust: sneak + use a compass on your tamed Lumen to mark "home" where you stand. At night, if you're more than 24 blocks from home in the same dimension and your Lumen is with you (not sitting), every 2 seconds it leaves a short trail of glowing dust pointing the way back. Vesper's trail is soul fire.
Wild Lumens: Lumens also turn up in the wild near players, in dark places: forests, birch woods, dark forest, flower forest and cherry groves at night, plus lush caves. In the Deep Dark, Vesper is a 1-in-4 find (1 in 256 elsewhere).
Moth Cocoon (item): use it on a block to release a new tamed Lumen with a random look.

Life cycle: small to big

2 tamed adults + glow berries → Egg clutch → Caterpillar (4 sizes) → Cocoon → Hatchling → Adult

Stage	What you'll see	How it moves on
Egg clutch	7 pale eggs on a silk pad; the tips start to glow in the parents' colour, then the shells crack	about an in-game day
Caterpillar	segmented, with a cream face, a side stripe and glowing bumps; it crawls with a wave motion	grows a size every quarter day, or one size per glow berry; once full-size it spins its own cocoon
Cocoon	a silk spindle tied down with web; the pupa glows through the silk, then the seam splits open	about an in-game day
Hatchling	comes out at half size and grows smoothly to full size	about an in-game day; it can only breed once fully grown

Pattern and glow colour are inherited: each comes from one of the two parents, with a 1-in-20 chance of a random mutation.

Riding: the Great Lumen

Craft Lantern Nectar: glass bottle + 2 glow berries + honeycomb (shapeless).
Feed a fully grown, tamed Lumen 3 Lantern Nectar. It grows into a Great Lumen, 2.2× its size.
Craft a Silk Saddle: wool in the top row, then string, leather, string. Use it on the Great Lumen.
Right-click with an empty hand to ride. Only the owner can ride.

Control	Effect
Mouse	Steer
W	Fly where you look (look down to dive, up to climb)
S / A / D	Drift back / sideways
Space	Rise
Shift	Get off

There's no fall damage while riding. If you stop giving it input for 5 seconds, it lands and perches. Shears take the saddle off.

No saddle? Glide. A Great Lumen without a saddle can still carry you, chicken-style. Right-click it with an empty hand and you grab its legs and hang underneath, both arms up holding it over your head. It can't climb on its own. You float down slowly, so it's made for jumping off cliffs.

Heat updrafts: glide over a lit campfire, fire, magma or lava (within 20 blocks below you) and the warm air lifts you, up to about 14 blocks above it. Chains of campfires make climbing routes. Modpacks can add heat blocks to the mothlight:glide_updraft block tag.
Night lift: at night you sink slower, so glides go farther after dark.

Control	Effect
Mouse	Steer
W	Drift where you face
S / A / D	Brake / slide sideways
Left Alt (rebindable: "Glide: drop faster")	Sink faster without letting go
Shift	Let go (you'll fall from where you are)

When your feet touch the ground it lets go by itself. There's no fall damage while hanging on. Put a saddle on it for full flight.

Rearing Jar: watch the whole metamorphosis

Craft a Rearing Jar (glass sides, a planks lid, a stick and dirt). Use the empty jar on any caterpillar, Lumen or wild species, to scoop it up, then place the jar. Inside are soil, a twig and a leaf.

Caterpillar: it crawls up and down the twig. Feed it leaves (any leaves; glow berries also work for Lumen caterpillars), up to 3 at a time. The leaf in the jar gets eaten down to bare. While it has food it grows through 4 sizes (a quarter day each); with no food it waits.
Spinning: at full size it climbs to the top and swings its head, laying silk, while a cocoon forms around it.
Pupa: the cocoon hangs from the twig and twitches now and then.
Emerging: the moth climbs out and clings below its cocoon, wings pumping up to full size.
Adult: sneak + use to set it free. A Lumen raised in a jar comes out already tamed to you; a wild species flies off.

Use the jar with an empty hand (no sneak) to read its status. Breaking the jar keeps whatever is inside. Sneak + use while it's still a caterpillar lets it crawl out; you can't open it mid-pupa.

**Lumen**Your companion moth. Tame it with glow berries.

**Vesper**The rare Mothman form: 1 in 256, or 1 in 4 in the Deep Dark.

**Great Lumen (saddled)**Grown with Lantern Nectar, 2.2x the size. Saddle it to fly.

**Caterpillar**Grows through 4 sizes, then spins its own cocoon.

Wild moths

48 species live across the world, 44 inspired by real moths and 4 Mothlight originals: every forest type, jungles and bamboo, cherry groves, meadows, swamps and mangroves, snowy biomes and frozen peaks, deserts, badlands, savanna, beaches, mushroom fields, the Pale Garden, lush and dripstone caves, the Deep Dark, the Nether and the outer End islands. Each has its own look, active time, resting surface and breeding food.

Full list and field notes: the species list.

What's coming: SPECIES-ROADMAP.md, the plan for future species packs (micro-moths, giants, hawk-moths and more) and new ways to breed them.

A few to look for:

Peppered Moth: birch bark camouflage.
Luna and Comet Moths: long trailing tails that sway behind the wingbeat.
Atlas Moth: huge, jungle, very rare.
Io and Polyphemus Moths: giant eyespots.
Garden Tiger, Cinnabar and Six-spot Burnet: bold warning colours.
Hummingbird Hawk-moth and White-lined Sphinx: hover at flowers by day.
White Ermine and Winter Moth: snow.
Bogong Moth: badlands rock.
Herald Moth: dripstone caves.
Ghost Moth: swamps at dusk.
Fungus Moth: mushroom fields.
Pale Prominent: Pale Garden.
Ember Moth and Glimmerwing: glowing originals for the Nether and lush caves.

What they do

They land on the tops and sides of blocks they like and rest with their wings flat. Walk up and they fly off; sneak to get close.
At night they fly to torches, lanterns and campfires and flutter around them.
Bats hunt moths at night. The moths dodge, but sometimes get eaten.

Species (48)

Every wild moth, with where it lives, when it flies, where it rests, what its pair needs to breed and what its wing scales make. Biome weights are relative spawn chances.

Peppered Moth

Night

Rests flat on birch bark by day, almost invisible. Flies to lights at night.

Where: birch forest (6), old growth birch forest (6), forest (2)
Rests on: birch bark
Breeding food: Oxeye Daisy
Scales: → Light Gray Dye

Famous for turning dark in sooty cities during the Industrial Revolution.

Journal hint: Look very closely at birch bark.

Peppered Moth (Dark Form)

Night

The soot-dark form of the Peppered Moth. Much more common near lit campfires.

Where: Birch forests, near smoke
Rests on: any log
Breeding food: Oxeye Daisy
Scales: → Black Dye

"Industrial melanism": dark moths survived better on soot-blackened trees.

Journal hint: Where there is smoke, the pale moths turn dark.

Oak Beauty

Night

Mottled brown wings vanish against oak and spruce bark.

Where: forest (6), taiga (6), old growth pine taiga (6), old growth spruce taiga (6), windswept forest (6), dark forest (6), flower forest (2)
Rests on: oak / spruce / dark oak bark
Breeding food: Dandelion
Scales: → Brown Dye

Its twig-like caterpillar holds perfectly still to pass as a branch.

Journal hint: Some of the bark in old forests has wings.

Luna Moth

Night

Rare, pale green, long tails. Rests in the leaves and is drawn to lights.

Where: dark forest (2), jungle (2), sparse jungle (2), bamboo jungle (2)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Lily of the Valley
Scales: → Lime Dye

Adults have no mouth and live about a week.

Journal hint: Something pale drifts through the darkest canopies.

Rosy Maple Moth

Night

Pink and butter-yellow, fuzzy. Loves lanterns.

Where: cherry grove (8), flower forest (3)
Rests on: cherry trees, flowers
Breeding food: Pink Petals
Scales: → Pink Dye

One of the smallest silk moths, about the size of a coin.

Journal hint: Pink on pink, among the blossoms.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

Day

Flies by day and hovers at flowers. Helps nearby crops grow.

Where: flower forest (4), meadow (4), plains (4), sunflower plains (4)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Allium
Scales: → Orange Dye

Often mistaken for a hummingbird; its wings beat about 80 times a second.

Journal hint: A tiny "bird" that hovers at flowers in the sun.

Death's-head Hawkmoth

Night

Skull mark on its back. Raids beehives at night for honey.

Where: birch forest (1), forest (1), plains (1), meadow (1)
Rests on: any log
Breeding food: Honey Bottle
Scales: → Yellow Dye

It squeaks when disturbed, and bees mostly ignore it in the hive.

Journal hint: Watch the beehives after dark.

Ember Moth

Any hourGlows

Glowing wing edges. Circles fire and lava.

Where: nether wastes (6), crimson forest (6), warped forest (6), basalt deltas (6), soul sand valley (6) (underground ok)
Rests on: nether stems, netherrack, basalt
Breeding food: Crimson Fungus
Scales: special uses only

A Mothlight original, inspired by real moths drawn to flame.

Journal hint: Something flutters around the lava lakes.

Glimmerwing

Any hourGlows

Glows like glow berries. Rests on moss and stone.

Where: lush caves (6) (underground ok)
Rests on: moss, stone, dripstone
Breeding food: Glow Lichen
Scales: special uses only

A Mothlight original; real glowworms light up New Zealand caves.

Journal hint: Some of the glow berries in lush caves fly.

Atlas Moth

Night

Enormous rust-red wings with clear "windows". The wing tips look like snake heads.

Where: jungle (1), bamboo jungle (1)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Cocoa Beans
Scales: → Red Dye

One of the largest moths in the world; its wings can span 25 cm.

Journal hint: Something huge rests in the deepest jungle.

Io Moth

Night

Plain yellow until it flashes a huge blue eyespot on each hindwing.

Where: forest (2), plains (2), savanna (2), birch forest (1)
Rests on: oak / spruce / dark oak bark
Breeding food: Azure Bluet
Scales: → Yellow Dye

The eyespots startle birds into thinking an owl is staring back.

Journal hint: Yellow wings hide a pair of staring eyes.

Polyphemus Moth

Night

Big and tawny, with one giant eye on each hindwing.

Where: forest (2), dark forest (2), birch forest (1), old growth birch forest (1)
Rests on: oak / spruce / dark oak bark
Breeding food: Oak Leaves
Scales: → Brown Dye

Named after the one-eyed Cyclops of Greek myth.

Journal hint: A giant eye opens on the forest floor at night.

Cecropia Moth

Night

North America's largest native moth: brick red, with white crescent moons on each wing.

Where: forest (1), plains (1), flower forest (1)
Rests on: oak / spruce / dark oak bark
Breeding food: Cherry Leaves
Scales: → Red Dye

Its caterpillar grows from 2 mm to over 10 cm long.

Journal hint: White crescents on red wings, big as your hand.

Garden Tiger Moth

Night

Cream wings with chocolate blotches hide bright orange hindwings with blue-black spots.

Where: meadow (3), plains (3), sunflower plains (3), flower forest (2)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Poppy
Scales: → Orange Dye

Its fuzzy caterpillar is the classic "woolly bear".

Journal hint: Orange flashes from under a cream and brown cloak.

Cinnabar Moth

Day

Charcoal and scarlet, flies in the day. Its colours warn: "I taste bad".

Where: meadow (3), plains (2), windswept hills (2)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Cornflower
Scales: → Red Dye

Its yellow-and-black caterpillars store poison from ragwort.

Journal hint: Red and black wings flutter openly in the sunshine.

Six-spot Burnet

Day

Glossy blue-black with six red spots. Sips nectar in full sun.

Where: meadow (3), flower forest (3), sunflower plains (2)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Orange Tulip
Scales: → Red Dye

Burnets can release cyanide to protect themselves.

Journal hint: Six red dots on dark blue, busy at the flowers.

Comet Moth

Night

Golden wings with extraordinarily long red-tipped tails.

Where: sparse jungle (1), mangrove swamp (1)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Melon Slice
Scales: → Yellow Dye

Its tails can be twice as long as its body; they confuse bat sonar.

Journal hint: A golden moth trails two long ribbons.

Elephant Hawk-moth

Night

Olive and hot pink. Hovers at flowers at dusk like a little jet.

Where: swamp (3), flower forest (2), river (2), meadow (1)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Pink Tulip
Scales: → Magenta Dye

Its caterpillar looks like an elephant trunk and puffs up fake eyes to scare birds.

Journal hint: A pink jet hums over the swamp flowers.

Poplar Hawk-moth

Night

Grey like dead leaves; rests with its hindwings oddly raised.

Where: birch forest (2), swamp (2), forest (1)
Rests on: birch bark
Breeding food: Birch Leaves
Scales: → Gray Dye

It flashes a rusty patch on its hindwings when poked.

Journal hint: A dead leaf clinging to the birches... with a rusty secret.

Puss Moth

Night

Fluffy and white like a kitten, with fine grey zigzags.

Where: swamp (2), mangrove swamp (2), birch forest (1)
Rests on: logs, leaves, mangrove roots
Breeding food: White Tulip
Scales: → White Dye

Its caterpillar can squirt formic acid and wave two whip-like tails.

Journal hint: A fluffy white "kitten" with wings, by the water.

Brimstone Moth

Night

Brilliant sulphur yellow with little brown flecks along the edge.

Where: forest (2), flower forest (2), plains (1)
Rests on: any log
Breeding food: Sunflower
Scales: → Yellow Dye

"Brimstone" is an old name for sulphur.

Journal hint: A flake of sunlight flutters at night.

Large Emerald

Night

Leaf-green with fine white lines. Hides in the canopy.

Where: forest (2), birch forest (2), dark forest (2), jungle (1)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Fern
Scales: → Green Dye

Its green fades to yellow-white as the moth gets older.

Journal hint: One of the leaves has white lines and flies away.

White Ermine

Night

Fluffy snow-white with black dots, like ermine fur.

Where: snowy taiga (4), snowy plains (3), grove (3), taiga (1)
Rests on: spruce, leaves, snow
Breeding food: Sweet Berries
Scales: → White Dye

Named after the white winter fur of the stoat (ermine).

Journal hint: Black specks on white, in the snowy woods.

Winter Moth

Night

Drab grey-brown and tough: it flies on the coldest nights.

Where: snowy plains (3), snowy slopes (3), grove (2), snowy taiga (2)
Rests on: spruce, leaves, snow
Breeding food: Spruce Leaves
Scales: → Gray Dye

The females are almost wingless and walk up tree trunks.

Journal hint: Something still flies on the coldest nights.

Bogong Moth

Night

Dark brown; shelters by the thousand in rock crevices.

Where: badlands (3), wooded badlands (2), eroded badlands (2), windswept hills (2), stony peaks (2)
Rests on: stone, terracotta, dripstone
Breeding food: Dead Bush
Scales: → Brown Dye

Bogongs migrate up to 1,000 km and navigate by the stars.

Journal hint: Dark wings crowd into the cracks of the badlands.

White-lined Sphinx

Day

Brown wings striped with white, flashing pink. Hovers at desert flowers.

Where: desert (3), badlands (2), savanna (2)
Rests on: sand, sandstone, terracotta, cactus
Breeding food: Cactus Flower
Scales: → Pink Dye

One of the few hawk-moths that feeds in broad daylight.

Journal hint: A pink-flashing hummer visits the cactus flowers.

Mopane Moth

Night

Tawny emperor moth with bold eyespots, among the acacias.

Where: savanna (3), savanna plateau (3), windswept savanna (3)
Rests on: any log
Breeding food: Acacia Leaves
Scales: → Orange Dye

Its caterpillar, the "mopane worm", is a popular snack in southern Africa.

Journal hint: Eyes stare from the acacias of the savanna.

Sand Dart

Night

Sand-coloured and speckled, vanishes on the dunes.

Where: beach (4), desert (2), snowy beach (1)
Rests on: sand, sandstone, terracotta, cactus
Breeding food: Sugar Cane
Scales: → Light Gray Dye

Its caterpillars live buried in sand, feeding on dune plants.

Journal hint: The sand on the beach sometimes takes off.

Herald Moth

Any hour

Ragged orange-flecked wings. Waits out the winter deep in caves.

Where: dripstone caves (5) (underground ok)
Rests on: moss, stone, dripstone
Breeding food: Apple
Scales: → Orange Dye

Heralds hibernate as adults in caves, cellars and old mines.

Journal hint: Ragged orange wings wait among the stalactites.

Ghost Moth

Night

Shining white males hover in place over the grass at dusk, like little ghosts.

Where: swamp (3), meadow (1), mangrove swamp (2)
Rests on: logs, leaves, mangrove roots
Breeding food: Blue Orchid
Scales: → White Dye

The hovering males release a scent that attracts females.

Journal hint: Ghosts bob above the swamp grass at dusk.

Fungus Moth

Any hour

Small and dusty. Its caterpillars tunnel through bracket fungi.

Where: mushroom fields (5)
Rests on: giant mushrooms, mycelium
Breeding food: Red Mushroom
Scales: → Light Gray Dye

Real fungus moths are among the oldest moth families alive.

Journal hint: Dust motes drift between the giant mushrooms.

Pale Prominent

Night

Rests rolled up like a dry pale twig among the pale oaks.

Where: pale garden (5)
Rests on: pale oak, pale moss
Breeding food: Pale Hanging Moss
Scales: → Light Gray Dye

Real prominents have a tuft on the wing that sticks up when resting.

Journal hint: A twig in the Pale Garden that is not a twig.

Madagascan Sunset Moth

Day

Black wings banded in green, blue, gold and fire red. Flies by day like a butterfly.

Where: bamboo jungle (2), jungle (1)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Bamboo
Scales: → Lime Dye

Its colours are not pigment: curved scales bend the light, like a soap bubble.

Journal hint: A rainbow flutters through the bamboo at noon.

Emperor Moth

Day

Four bold eyespots, one on every wing. Males dash over the heather in sunshine.

Where: windswept hills (3), windswept gravelly hills (3), meadow (1)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Allium
Scales: → Orange Dye

A male can smell a female from several kilometres away with his feathered antennae.

Journal hint: Four eyes race across the windy hills by day.

Spanish Moon Moth

Night

Pale green with every vein drawn in red-brown, like stained glass.

Where: old growth pine taiga (2), old growth spruce taiga (2), taiga (1)
Rests on: spruce, leaves, snow
Breeding food: Spruce Sapling
Scales: → Green Dye

In the wild it lives only in a few mountain pine forests and is protected by law.

Journal hint: Stained glass hangs among the old pines.

Giant Leopard Moth

Night

Snow white with hollow blue-black rings, like a leopard in negative.

Where: dark forest (2), forest (1), plains (1)
Rests on: oak / spruce / dark oak bark
Breeding food: Dandelion
Scales: → Black Dye

Under the white wings its body is shining blue with orange marks.

Journal hint: A leopard, but white, and it has wings.

Scarlet Tiger

Day

Glossy green-black forewings spotted cream and gold; scarlet underneath.

Where: river (3), swamp (1), meadow (2), cherry grove (2)
Rests on: flowers, leaves, logs
Breeding food: Red Tulip
Scales: → Red Dye

Unlike most tiger moths, the adult can feed, sipping nectar in the sun.

Journal hint: Red flashes along the riverbank in daylight.

Oleander Hawk-moth

Night

Army-camouflage green, swirled with pink and cream. A fast, strong flier.

Where: jungle (2), sparse jungle (2), savanna (1)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Jungle Leaves
Scales: → Green Dye

It migrates thousands of kilometres and can turn up far from the tropics.

Journal hint: Camouflage paint that hovers at jungle flowers.

Black Witch

Night

Huge, dark and bat-like, with a thin violet band across all four wings.

Where: badlands (3), eroded badlands (3), wooded badlands (1), dripstone caves (3) (underground ok)
Rests on: stone, terracotta, dripstone
Breeding food: Sweet Berries
Scales: → Black Dye

Folklore from Mexico to the Caribbean calls it a messenger; in some places, good luck with money.

Journal hint: A bat that is not a bat sleeps under the badlands overhangs.

White Witch

Night

The widest wings of any moth: pale cream scribbled with fine dark zigzags.

Where: bamboo jungle (1), mangrove swamp (1)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Glow Berries
Scales: → White Dye

Its wingspan can pass 30 cm, wider than a dinner plate, yet its caterpillar was unknown for 300 years.

Journal hint: A pale sheet of paper drifts between the trees at night. It is alive.

Red Underwing

Night

Bark-grey and invisible on a trunk, until it flashes blood-red hindwings.

Where: dark forest (2), river (2), old growth birch forest (2)
Rests on: oak / spruce / dark oak bark
Breeding food: Oak Sapling
Scales: → Red Dye

The sudden red flash startles a bird just long enough for the moth to get away.

Journal hint: The bark blinked red.

Magpie Moth

Night

White with inky spots and a soft orange band, like a tiny magpie.

Where: cherry grove (4), flower forest (1), taiga (1)
Rests on: cherry trees, flowers
Breeding food: Pink Petals
Scales: → Yellow Dye

Its caterpillar wears the same white, black and orange warning colours as the adult.

Journal hint: Ink was spilled on the cherry blossom.

Hornet Moth

Day

A perfect hornet costume: striped yellow and black with clear amber wings. Harmless.

Where: sunflower plains (2), plains (1), birch forest (1)
Rests on: birch bark
Breeding food: Sunflower
Scales: → Yellow Dye

It even flies with a hornet's jerky buzz, but it has no sting at all.

Journal hint: Not every hornet in the sunflowers can sting.

African Moon Moth

Night

Yellow-green with long twisting tails, drifting between the acacias.

Where: savanna (1), savanna plateau (2), windswept savanna (2)
Rests on: leaves, jungle and dark oak logs
Breeding food: Acacia Leaves
Scales: → Lime Dye

The adult has no mouth: it lives about a week on what it ate as a caterpillar.

Journal hint: A yellow kite with two tails hangs in the acacias.

Arctic Woolly Bear Moth

Day

Small, grey and very furry. Out in the brief cold sunshine.

Where: ice spikes (4), frozen peaks (3), jagged peaks (3), snowy slopes (1)
Rests on: spruce, leaves, snow
Breeding food: Snowball
Scales: → Gray Dye

Its caterpillar freezes solid every winter and can take seven years or more to grow up.

Journal hint: Something small and furry is awake on the ice.

Crimson Speckled

Any hour

Cream wings sprinkled with crimson and black dots. Oddly at home among the crimson stems.

Where: crimson forest (5) (underground ok)
Rests on: nether stems, netherrack, basalt
Breeding food: Crimson Roots
Scales: → Red Dye

In the overworld of real life it is a famous long-distance wanderer, blown across seas.

Journal hint: Pale confetti drifts through the crimson forest.

Echo Moth

Any hourGlows

Silent, ink-blue wings with a teal pulse at the tail. It never flies near a shrieker.

Where: deep dark (6) (underground ok)
Rests on: sculk, deepslate
Breeding food: Sculk Vein
Scales: → Cyan Dye

A Mothlight original, inspired by real moths that jam bat sonar with ultrasonic clicks.

Journal hint: A teal spark drifts where nothing dares make a sound.

Voidwing

Any hourGlows

Wings like a piece of the night sky, dusted with pale stars. Circles the chorus trees.

Where: end highlands (5), end midlands (4), small end islands (2) (underground ok)
Rests on: end stone, chorus plants, purpur
Breeding food: Chorus Fruit
Scales: → Purple Dye

A Mothlight original, inspired by moths that steer by the stars and the Milky Way.

Journal hint: A scrap of starry sky came loose near the chorus trees.

Mothing: catch, keep and collect

Item	Recipe	Use
Moth Net	4 string + 1 stick	Right-click a wild moth while you have an empty Moth Jar to catch it
Moth Jar	5 glass + 1 planks → 2	Place a filled jar as a living lantern: the moth flutters inside or rests on the glass. It gives off light, and Ember and Glimmerwing glow brighter
Moth Sheet	white wool + sticks	A 3-wide × 2-tall sheet between two posts. Place it from one item: click where the bottom-middle goes, and it needs open space. Breaking any part takes it all down. Put a lantern or torch near it at night, and moths settle all over the cloth, mostly on the lit front. New local visitors keep arriving, up to 10
Moth Journal	book + string + glow berries	Logs every species you catch: one page each with habitat, habits and a real fact. Species you haven't found show "???" and a hint. Rewards at 8, 16 and 24 species, and a Moonlit Phial for all of them (see below)

Jar controls

Right-click (empty hand): collect the wing scales it has shed.
Sneak + right-click (empty hand): let the moth go.
A broken jar keeps its moth. Each species has its own jar icon.

Journal rewards (also listed on the journal's Rewards page)

Species recorded	Reward
8	Moth Sheet + 4 Moth Jars
16	2 Rearing Jars + 8 Moth Silk
24	3 Lantern Nectar + Silk Saddle
All	Moonlit Phial: use it on your tamed Lumen and its glow turns a silver-white that never appears at random. Its young can inherit it

Each reward is paid once. If you passed a milestone before this update, you get it the next time you log in.

The Moth Journal

Craft it from a book, string and glow berries, then use it. It has three tabs: a Guide to the mod, every Wild moth (caught species get a full page, the rest a silhouette and a hint) and the Lumens. Use Index to jump to any page.

**A species page: the moth, where and when to find it, and a real fact**

**Not caught yet: a silhouette and a hint**

**Lumens: patterns, glow colours and the Great Lumen**

Breeding wild moths

Put two jars of the same species next to each other (touching, diagonals included).
Use the species' favourite food on one jar.
The pair lays Wild Moth Eggs nearby. These hatch into a caterpillar in that species' colours, which grows, spins a Wild Moth Cocoon, and hatches a moth of that species.
The jars rest for an in-game day before they can lay again.

Every species has its own favourite food; see the Breeding food column in the species list. For example: Peppered → oxeye daisy, Luna → lily of the valley, Rosy Maple → pink petals, Atlas → cocoa beans.

In the wild. Wild moths also breed without you: a resting moth sometimes lays a clutch near its perch, and the caterpillars grow up, spin cocoons and emerge by themselves. They eat nothing and damage nothing. A wild caterpillar you find can be scooped into a Rearing Jar, or fed glow berries to adopt it. Wild-born caterpillars and moths that nobody adopted leave when no player is near. Server setting: wildLifeCycle.

Wing scales

You get Wing Scales two ways:

Moths in jars shed them: 1 every half day, up to 4. Right-click the jar to collect.
Wild moths you kill drop 1–2.

Most species' scales craft into a matching dye (see the Scales → column in the species list). Special uses:

Scales	Make
Glimmerwing + ink sac	Glow ink sac
Brewing: Awkward Potion + Luna scales	Night Vision
Brewing: Awkward Potion + Ember scales	Fire Resistance
Brewing: Awkward Potion + Voidwing scales	Slow Falling
Brewing: Awkward Potion + Black Witch scales	Luck
Brewing: Awkward Potion + Echo Moth scales	Invisibility

Peppered Moth Scales → Light Gray Dye

Peppered Moth (Dark Form) Scales → Black Dye

Oak Beauty Scales → Brown Dye

Luna Moth Scales → Lime Dye

Rosy Maple Moth Scales → Pink Dye

Hummingbird Hawk-moth Scales → Orange Dye

Death's-head Hawkmoth Scales → Yellow Dye

Glimmerwing Scales + Ink Sac → Glow Ink Sac

Atlas Moth Scales → Red Dye

Io Moth Scales → Yellow Dye

Polyphemus Moth Scales → Brown Dye

Cecropia Moth Scales → Red Dye

Garden Tiger Moth Scales → Orange Dye

Cinnabar Moth Scales → Red Dye

Six-spot Burnet Scales → Red Dye

Comet Moth Scales → Yellow Dye

Elephant Hawk-moth Scales → Magenta Dye

Poplar Hawk-moth Scales → Gray Dye

Puss Moth Scales → White Dye

Brimstone Moth Scales → Yellow Dye

Large Emerald Scales → Green Dye

White Ermine Scales → White Dye

Winter Moth Scales → Gray Dye

Bogong Moth Scales → Brown Dye

White-lined Sphinx Scales → Pink Dye

Mopane Moth Scales → Orange Dye

Sand Dart Scales → Light Gray Dye

Herald Moth Scales → Orange Dye

Ghost Moth Scales → White Dye

Fungus Moth Scales → Light Gray Dye

Pale Prominent Scales → Light Gray Dye

Madagascan Sunset Moth Scales → Lime Dye

Emperor Moth Scales → Orange Dye

Spanish Moon Moth Scales → Green Dye

Giant Leopard Moth Scales → Black Dye

Scarlet Tiger Scales → Red Dye

Oleander Hawk-moth Scales → Green Dye

Black Witch Scales → Black Dye

White Witch Scales → White Dye

Red Underwing Scales → Red Dye

Magpie Moth Scales → Yellow Dye

Hornet Moth Scales → Yellow Dye

African Moon Moth Scales → Lime Dye

Arctic Woolly Bear Moth Scales → Gray Dye

Crimson Speckled Scales → Red Dye

Echo Moth Scales → Cyan Dye

Voidwing Scales → Purple Dye

Moth Hood and Moth Shawl

Woven from Moth Silk. The shawl hangs like a ragged poncho and opens into wings whenever you are in the air; it glides like an elytra. The hood has antennae and two big eyes: press G to slide them down as goggles, which outline moths and caterpillars within 40 blocks (moth vision).

Put either one in a crafting grid with four wing scales of one species to give it that moth's wings and colours (twelve species so far, more in later updates). The Mothman look comes from a Vesper you have tamed: use the hood or shawl on it. They are for looks and gliding, not armour. Server setting: mothVision.

Moth Silk

Every cocoon that hatches (Lumen or wild) leaves 1–2 Moth Silk behind. Craft 1 silk into 3 string, or make a Silk Saddle from 3 silk on top with string, leather and string below.

Advancements

A Mothlight advancement tab:

Tame a Lumen, breed Lumens, tame a Vesper (hidden), and ride a Great Lumen.
Catch a moth, place a jar, set up a sheet, collect scales and silk.
Catch an Atlas Moth.
Lepidopterist (challenge): catch every wild species.

For server owners

Mothlight runs on the client and the server. Each world gets config/mothlight-server.toml after the first start (older NeoForge versions put it in <world>/serverconfig/). Changes apply without a restart.

Setting	Default	What it does
`greatLumenFlight`	true	Saddled Great Lumens can be flown (real flight, in survival too)
`gliding`	true	Unsaddled Great Lumens can be hung from to glide down
`warningChime`	true	Tamed Lumens chime at hostile mobs near their owner
`waypointDust`	true	Tamed Lumens leave a glowing trail back to a marked home
`timings`	PRODUCTION	`PRODUCTION`: about a day per stage. `DEV`: about 2 minutes per stage, for testing or events
`wildLumens`	true	Wild Lumens visit players at night in their biomes
`wildLumenChance`	25	Percent chance every 30 s per player that one turns up (at most two wild Lumens nearby)
`vesperOdds`	256	1 in this many new Lumens is a Vesper
`vesperOddsDeepDark`	4	The same, for wild Lumens in the Deep Dark
`mothSheetMaxVisitors`	10	Most moths on one lit Moth Sheet (0 = none)
`wildLifeCycle`	true	Wild moths lay eggs where they rest; caterpillars grow up and emerge by themselves (they damage nothing)
`batsHuntMoths`	true	Bats hunt moths at night

With a permission mod such as LuckPerms, these permission nodes let you allow or deny things per player or group:

Node	Default
`mothlight.ride.fly`	the `greatLumenFlight` setting
`mothlight.ride.glide`	the `gliding` setting
`mothlight.command.admin`	operators only (`/mothlight demo`, `/mothlight journal ...`)

All checks run on the server.

Commands (op)

Fastest way to review everything: stand on open ground and run /mothlight demo. It clears a 21×19 area to your north and builds four rows:

Lumen life cycle: egg and cocoon stages, caterpillars at all 4 sizes, a hatchling and an adult.
Patterns: all 5 wing patterns with different glow colours, plus a Vesper.
Wild moths and riding: birch and oak logs with Peppered Moths and Oak Beauties, a lit Moth Sheet with six more species, your saddled Great Lumen, and a Luna breeding pair.
Jars: one Moth Jar of every species.

It also sets the time to dusk and gives you a kit: net, jars, journal, sheet, lanterns, nectar, saddle, glow berries, lily of the valley, scales and a brewing setup.

/summon mothlight:lumen ~ ~1 ~ {Pattern:2,Glow:1}                     # Pattern 0-4, Glow 0-3
/summon mothlight:lumen ~ ~1 ~ {Variant:1}                            # Vesper
/summon mothlight:lumen ~ ~1 ~ {Great:1b,Saddled:1b}                  # mount (tame it with a glow berry first)
/summon mothlight:wild_moth ~ ~1 ~ {Species:"luna"}                   # any species id from the tables
/setblock ~ ~ ~ mothlight:moth_jar[light=7]{Species:"rosy_maple"}     # filled jar
/give @s mothlight:wing_scales[mothlight:moth_species="luna"] 3
/mothlight journal discover all        # or one species id
/mothlight journal reset

Species ids are listed in the species list (for example luna, atlas, garden_tiger, white_lined_sphinx).

Life cycle: small to big

Riding: the Great Lumen

Rearing Jar: watch the whole metamorphosis

Zombie.Digital

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