See, I understand That bees are great. As more people move into cities over the next few decades, more insects will be needed to pollinate the urban green spaces that provide fresh crops and the biomass that cools big cities. But while cities deploy as many flowering species as possible to attract bees, they risk sidelining the underappreciated champions of pollination, the humble moths.
If moths have been on your mind lately, it’s not your fault. Because moths are nocturnal, they are inherently more difficult to study than bees. This means that scientists will have to work at night using light traps to attract objects. “The reason bees are missed is because bees are seen during the day, while moths are clearly out at night,” says Emily Ellis, a pollinator ecologist at the University of Sheffield. “I truly believe that I could count six papers comparing moths to bees or moths to moths.” everything”
“And they have a very bad reputation for eating your clothes and carpets,” Ellis added. “Actually, they are very diverse.”
To fill this knowledge gap, Ellis and her colleagues last week study in a diary ecology letter This shows that moths are actually busy little… moths. The research team collected bees and moths in Leeds, England, and processed the pollen DNA that accumulated in the insects. This allowed them to identify the types of plants each of them may have visited and pollinated.
The research team found that moths carry more pollen than scientists previously realized, accounting for one-third of pollinator visits, also higher than previously thought. discovered. “The pollens we’ve identified from moths and bees include pollen from wildflowers, garden crops, trees, and shrubs,” says Ellis. Notably, researchers found that moths carry pollen from many cultivated species, including strawberries, citrus fruits and drupes, and that this insect plays a role in pollinating the foods we eat. suggests thatBefore the study They showed that moths can also be pollinators of blueberries, raspberries and apples.
Christopher Kosma, a pollination and climate change ecologist at the University of California, said, “Evidence around the world that moths are really, really important pollinators for entire plant communities, especially in the last five years or so. It’s increasing,” he says. Mr. Riverside was not involved with the new paper. “They are not only important to native wild plant communities, they contribute directly to our food supply.”
The new study found that while moths and bees visit parts of the same plant, such as daisies, they have different preferences. Of course, bees are big fans of wildflowers, but moths prefer woody species such as trees and shrubs. Overall, the researchers found that 8% of his pollen of the plant species they identified were present only in moths.
The difference in preferences of moths and bees is partly due to their different life cycles. Adult bees visit flowers for nectar, but they also seek pollen to feed the growing larvae. In contrast, adult moths seek only their own nectar. Since caterpillars are munching on leaves instead, they don’t need pollen to nourish their offspring.
