Moths have a secret but vital role as pollinators in the night

MAY 12, 2020

by University College London

Moths are important pollen transporters in English farmland and might play a role in supporting crop yields, according to a new UCL study.

The research, published in Biology Letters, shows that moth pollen transport networks are larger and more complex than networks for daytime pollinators.

The team found that moths transport pollen from a high number of plants also visited by bees, butterflies and hoverflies, but also interacted with plants not commonly visited by these insects.

The study also shows that pollen transport occurs most frequently on the moth's ventral thorax (chest), rather than on the proboscis (tongue), allowing it to be easily transferred to other plants.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Richard Walton (UCL Geography) said: "Nocturnal moths have an important but overlooked ecological role. They complement the work of daytime pollinators, helping to keep plant populations diverse and abundant. They also provide natural biodiversity back-up, and without them many more plant species and animals, such as birds and bats that rely on them for food, would be at risk.

"Previous studies of pollen transport among settling moths have focused on their proboscis. However, settling moths sit on the flower while feeding, with their often distinctly hairy bodies touching the flower's reproductive organs. This happy accident helps pollen to be easily transported during subsequent flower visits."

This pivotal study comes at the time as moth populations are experiencing steep declines across the globe, with worrying implications that we may be losing critical pollination services at a time when we are barely beginning to understand them.

Dr. Jan Axmacher (UCL Geography) said: "In recent decades, there has been a lot of science focus on solitary and social bees driven by concerns about their dramatic decline and the strong negative effect this has had on insect-pollinated crop yields.

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Widespread losses of pollinating insects in Britain

Study reveals declines in distribution of many species of bees and hoverflies

Date:  March 26, 2019

Source:  Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Many insect pollinator species are disappearing from areas of Great Britain, a new study has found.

The research, led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, measured the presence of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across the country, from 1980 to 2013. It showed one third of species experienced declines in terms of areas in which they were found, while one tenth increased. For the remainder of species, their distribution was either stable or the trend was inconclusive.

A positive but unexpected finding of the study was the increase in key bee species responsible for pollinating flowering crops, such as oil-seed rape. This could be in response to the large increases of mass-flowering crops grown during the study period and government-subsidised schemes that encourage farmers to plant more of the wildflowers they feed on.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, also showed that on average, the geographic range of bee and hoverfly species declined by a quarter. This is equivalent to a net loss of 11 species from each 1km square.

Overall losses were more notable for pollinator species found in northern Britain. This may be a result of climate change, with species that prefer cooler temperatures reducing their geographical spread in response to less climatically suitable landscapes.

Dr Gary Powney of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who led the research, says: "We used cutting-edge statistical methods to analyse a vast number of species observations, revealing widespread differences in distribution change across pollinating insects. There is no one single cause for these differences, but habitat loss is a likely key driver of the declines.

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Impact of urbanization on wild bees underestimated

Date:  March 6, 2019

Source:  University of Michigan

Wild bees are indispensable pollinators, supporting both agricultural productivity and the diversity of flowering plants worldwide.

But wild bees are experiencing widespread declines resulting from multiple interacting factors. A new University of Michigan-led study suggests that the effects of one of those factors -- urbanization -- may have been underestimated.

The study, led by a group of current and former U-M students and conducted at sites across southeast Michigan, looks at one aspect of this topic they say has received scant attention from bee researchers: the sex ratio of wild bees and how it changes across a rural-to-urban land-use gradient.

The team found that the sex ratio of wild bees became more male-dominated as urbanization increased, mainly driven by a decline in medium- and large-bodied ground-nesting female bees. The study, published March 6 in the journal Scientific Reports, is believed to be the first investigation of observed sex ratio in a complete wild bee community along a rural-to-urban gradient.

"These findings have potential implications on bee population health and pollination services, since male and female bees often have different pollination behaviors," said Paul Glaum, one of the study's first authors and a postdoctoral researcher in U-M's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

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Robotic bees could pollinate plants in case of insect apocalypse

Dutch scientists say they can create swarms of bee-like drones to take over if the insects die out

Daniel Boffey in Delft

Tue 9 Oct 2018 13.15 BSTLast modified on Tue 9 Oct 2018 17.22 BST

Intensive modern farming methods and the unravelling consequences of global climate change are said to have put the future of the common bee under threat like never before.

But in Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands a group of scientists working on long-term solutions to some of the world’s thorniest problems have developed a solution that could have come straight from a sci-fi novel: robotic bees.

By reproducing some of the complex wing motion patterns and aerodynamics of fruit flies, in particular, researchers in the university’s newly opened Robohouse, a hub for Dutch expertise, believe they will be able to create swarms of bee-like drones to pollinate plants when the real-life insects have died away.

The wings of the robotic DelFly beat 17 times per second, to generate the lift needed to stay airborne and control its flight through small adjustments in their wing motion.

The researchers asked why a fly was so difficult to swat and looked to reproduce the insect’s evasive technique. The robo-bees can hover on the spot, fly in any direction, and even flip 360 degrees around pitch or roll axes. Because the robots’ wings are made of a lightweight film made of mylar, the material used in space blankets, it is safe for people to work around them.

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In the absence of bees, flies are responsible for pollination in the Arctic region

Date:  October 9, 2018

Source:  University of Helsinki

Most of the fauna in the Arctic region take part in pollinating, yet during the busiest flowering weeks, there's a shortage of such services. A recent study indicates that the pollination services provided to plants and, thus, the plants' ability to produce seeds are dependent on the timing of the blooming season, and on how many other species are in bloom simultaneously.

Mikko Tiusanen, MSc, investigated in his doctoral dissertation the structure and functioning of plants and their pollinators in Arctic regions.

"Up north, there are very few Apidae, such as bees and bumblebees, so other insect groups bear the main responsibility for pollination," explains Tiusanen.

In his study, Tiusanen found that relatives of the ubiquitous housefly had a central role. These members of the Muscidae family are important pollinators, whose abundance impacts the seed production of northern plants.

The mountain avens hoards pollinators

Flowering in the Arctic occurs in the few weeks after the snow has melted. The subsequent profusion of flowers causes intensive competition for the pollination services provided by insects.

The abundant mountain avens with its attractive flowers hoards most of the pollinator visits, which leaves the pollination of rare and less attractive flowers particularly inadequate. At the height of mountain avens' blooming time, even their own seed production suffers from the competition for pollinators within the species itself.

Continued  

World’s most controversial fruit depends on giant bats for pollination

While we debate whether the durian is the best or worst food on the planet, it turns out this wonderful oddity requires healthy populations of flying fox for survival 

Jeremy Hance

Mon 19 Feb 2018 14.48 GMTLast modified on Mon 19 Feb 2018 15.26 GMT

Durian. Depending on whom you talk to it’s either the most beloved or the most despised fruit on the planet. It suffers no moderation, no wishy-washiness. It is the king of fruits or the worst thing you’ve ever tasted. Due to its potent odour – delicate and sweet to its advocates and sewage-like to its detractors – durian has been banned from airplanes, subways, and hotels (though punishments appear light if non-existent). But a recent study in Ecology and Evolution finds there may be no durians at all without bats: big, threatened bats. The scientists found that flying foxes – bats in the Pteropus and Acerodon genus and the largest in the world – are likely vital pollinators for the polarising durian.

“We already knew that flying foxes feed on durian flowers, but there was this unsubstantiated belief, even among some researchers, that flying foxes just destroyed the flowers,” said Sheema Abdul Aziz, the lead researcher on the project that was done as part of her PhD at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in France. “It doesn’t help that a durian flower only blooms for one night, then falls off the tree naturally, regardless of whether it’s been pollinated or not. When people see all the flowers on the ground in the morning, they think it’s the bats.”

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The more kinds of bees, the better for humans

Study of 48 farms in two states shows abundance of species means lots of pollination

Date:  February 15, 2018

Source:  Rutgers University

Summary:

The bigger the area to pollinate, the more species of wild bees you need to pollinate it.

Continued  

South Africa's long-legged bees adapted to pollinate snapdragon flowers

An extraordinary case of adaptation by a pollinator

Date:  September 13, 2017

Source:  Stellenbosch University

Summary:

New research shows that, in an extraordinary case of adaptation, the disproportionately long front legs of South Africa's oil-collecting Rediviva bee species have evolved in response to the equally long oil-producing spurs of snapdragons.

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Restoration strengthens the resilience, function of pollination networks

Date: January 31, 2017

Source: Technische Universität Darmstadt

Removing exotic plant species has a much greater impact on ecosystems than previously thought. Pollination processes become more efficient, and the pollination network soon becomes more resilient. These are the findings of a major field study carried out on the Seychelles, details of which biology researchers of the TU Darmstadt are now publishing online, before an article appears in the scientific journal, Nature.

Ecosystem restoration often focuses on plant species, explains PD Dr Christopher Kaiser-Bunbury, member of the Ecological Networks Study Group of the TU Darmstadt Biology Department. Kaiser-Bunbury is the lead author of the article "Ecosystem restoration strengthens pollination network resilience and function" which is published in the international journal Nature. An established method was used to remove all non-native plants that were becoming too dominant and invasive. "Up until this point, however, we did not know whether interfering with the vegetation in this way would have any effect on pollinators and, in turn, on important processes within the ecosystem." This very question was the focus of biologists in a research project carried out on eight inselbergs on the Seychelles' largest island, Mahé.

In a defined area on four inselbergs, all exotic flora -- such as cinnamon, eucalyptus and Prune de France -- was removed, leaving behind the original, native vegetation. For comparison, the vegetation of four other inselbergs was left untouched.

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One fly to rule them all: Flies are the key pollinators of the High Arctic

Date: September 28, 2016

Source: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Forget the view of the Arctic as an icy desert devoid of life. The Arctic summer is buzzing with insects -- and here as everywhere else, plants rely on them for pollination. But who are the insects driving the pollination services across the Arctic? A new study finds the biggest heroes among the most modest of animals: small flies related to our common house fly. This finding offers cause for concern, as arctic fly abundances are declining as the Arctic continues to warm.

Some flies are more important than others

Researchers from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Canada have focused on a single but common arctic plant: the mountain avens (Dryas). They first recorded what insects visited the flowers of avens at 15 sites in northeast Greenland, then returned to score the seed set of these flowers. The results were clear: the more of the house fly -like flies (family Muscidae) that were present, the more flowers set seed. And even among these flies, a single super-hero emerged: what best explained seed set was the abundance of a single fly, Spilogona sanctipauli.

A new use for fly paper

To record the insects visiting a plant, the researchers invented a new solution. "Instead of staring on flowers for hours, waiting to see who sat down on them, we constructed self-trapping flowers," explains Mikko Tiusanen, lead author of the study. "For this, we used something very similar to fly paper -- the sticky traps used to catch e.g. insect pest in green houses. In our case, we cut this sticky paper into natural-looking flowers, and hid them among the real flowers."

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