Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. Bees are not doing
Speaker 1: well since the mid two thousand's colony collapse disorder has
Speaker 1: been taking out the world's most famous plant pollinator all
Speaker 1: over the world. Bees pollinate one third of the plants
Speaker 1: we eat, from oranges to almonds, a service worth some
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty eight billion dollars a year, by
Speaker 1: the way, and their rapid disappearance is worrying farmers worldwide.
Speaker 1: But what if there's a secret army of pollinators sneaking
Speaker 1: around the plants we rely on most It could be
Speaker 1: good news for our food security, or it could be
Speaker 1: a neutral factor if these insects are susceptible to the
Speaker 1: same or similar pressures as bees. A study published in
Speaker 1: May of twenty and the journal Biology Letters has found
Speaker 1: that moths play a much bigger part in pollinating plants
Speaker 1: than anybody imagined, possibly visiting a bigger variety of plant
Speaker 1: species than bees and doing it under the cover of darkness.
Speaker 1: Scientists didn't just realize overnight that moths pollinate plants. The
Speaker 1: problem was much of the research was limited to a
Speaker 1: few specific types of moths, that obviously spend a lot
Speaker 1: of their time rooting around in flowers, like hawk moths,
Speaker 1: which have extraordinarily long tongues like fourteen inches that's thirty
Speaker 1: six centimeters long, used for getting it hard to reach
Speaker 1: nectar reserves within a flower. However, over the last decade,
Speaker 1: investigations into how moths as a group contribute to the
Speaker 1: process of pollination found that your average moth tongue can
Speaker 1: be a really effective tool for moving pollen from plant
Speaker 1: to plant. This knowledge led the studies authors to turn
Speaker 1: an eye to the rarely studied settling moths, which sit
Speaker 1: low and close to flowers and hide out in sheltered
Speaker 1: spots during the day. We spoke by email with these
Speaker 1: studies lead author Richard Walton of the University College London
Speaker 1: Department of Geography. He said, our research has for the
Speaker 1: first time compared moth pollination networks with those of day
Speaker 1: flying pollinators such as bees and hover flies, to help
Speaker 1: us understand and illustrate the wide ranging plant preferences we
Speaker 1: discovered moths to have in an agricultural setting. We also
Speaker 1: found that malls were carrying most pollen from the flowers
Speaker 1: they visited on their furry bodies, which means the means
Speaker 1: of pollen transport from flower to flower by moths is
Speaker 1: very similar to bees and hover flies, which also transport
Speaker 1: most of the pollen on their bodies. Many social bees,
Speaker 1: like bumble bees and honey bees, visit lots of different
Speaker 1: types of flowers, but they also tend to target certain
Speaker 1: favorite plants that they know will provide plenty of their
Speaker 1: favorite kinds of pollen and nectar. As a result, some
Speaker 1: plant species get less be attention than others. Walton said,
Speaker 1: Solitary bees can often be more specialized visiting one type
Speaker 1: of plant, while hover flies often visit flowers with a
Speaker 1: certain shape. We found that moths visit many different species
Speaker 1: of plant with a few different types of flower shape.
Speaker 1: If daytime pollinators do not visit a particular plant species often,
Speaker 1: but moth species do, and this results in pollination, this
Speaker 1: increases the chance that this plant would survive for another generation. So,
Speaker 1: because moths are a bit less picky than daytime pollinators
Speaker 1: but still get the pollination job done, plants not preferred
Speaker 1: by bees persist. Maintaining a diverse population of plants is
Speaker 1: essential to maintaining a stable and resilient ecosystem. That can
Speaker 1: weather threats like climate change or urbanization. Conversely, with plenty
Speaker 1: of plants to feed on, moths themselves can continue being
Speaker 1: an important food source for birds, bats, and other insects.
Speaker 1: The research team observed and collected daytime pollinators as well
Speaker 1: as nocturnal moths around farm ponds in the United Kingdom
Speaker 1: and found moth food webs were often comparable to those
Speaker 1: of daytime pollinators in complexity, and in some instances had
Speaker 1: greater complexity. Walton said moths are likely providing a kind
Speaker 1: of resilience or back up to the food webs of
Speaker 1: daytime pollinators. If a certain species or number of species
Speaker 1: of bee or butterfly disappears from the landscape, moths could
Speaker 1: potentially fill in that pollination gap. Taking this a step further,
Speaker 1: it's also significant because moth populations are facing severe declines
Speaker 1: across the globe. As we realize that they are important
Speaker 1: contributors to the pollination process, it becomes even more important
Speaker 1: to protect moth populations because we might be placing ourselves
Speaker 1: at risk. The researchers found moths were visiting plants belonging
Speaker 1: to families that are important to humans as a source
Speaker 1: of foods, like apples, strawberries, pears, peaches, beans, and peas.
Speaker 1: Walton said this has exciting implications for moths being involved
Speaker 1: in crop pollination. It would help us to move past
Speaker 1: seeing moths as merely pests, but it's important contributors to
Speaker 1: our own livelihoods. Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clay. For more and listen lots
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff
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