Moths Are More Efficient Pollinators Than Bees, Shows New Research

According to new research published last month in PLOS ONE, moths are more efficient pollinators at night than day-flying pollinators such as bees. Phys.Org reports: Studying 10 sites in the South East of England throughout July 2021, [researchers from the University of Sussex] found that 83% of insect visits to bramble flowers were made during the day. While the moths made fewer visits during the shorter summer nights, notching up only 15% of the visits, they were able to pollinate the flowers more quickly. As a result, the researchers concluded that moths are more efficient pollinators than day-flying insects such as bees, which are traditionally thought of as "hard-working." While day-flying insects have more time available to transfer pollen, moths were making an important contribution during the short hours of darkness.

Professor Fiona Mathews, Professor of Environmental Biology at the University of Sussex and co-author this latest research, says, "Bees are undoubtedly important, but our work has shown that moths pollinate flowers at a faster rate than day-flying insects. Sadly, many moths are in serious decline in Britain, affecting not just pollination but also food supplies for many other species ranging from bats to birds. Our work shows that simple steps, such as allowing patches of bramble to flower, can provide important food sources for moths, and we will be rewarded with a crop of blackberries. Everyone's a winner!"

They're bigger, so more polen

[Z80a]

Which means we need to genetically engineer bees to make em as big as moths

Re:

[chas.williams]

Why stop there?

Re:

[Z80a]

Beaver sized bees?

Re:

[chas.williams]

Have you ever watched 1960s monster movies?

I don't know if it's the article

[paralumina01]

Or if science is just this bad now. Conclusions are not to be formed about the data themselves but what the data say about the hypothesis. It seems to me they made an observation then formed their conclusion, skipping everything else. But, it might just be whoever wrote this article doesn't know better and should write about something else.

Re: I don't know if it's the article

[ISayWeOnlyToBePolite]

First link in the summary goes to the original paper: https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]

Re:

[Narcocide]

I don't know whether moths are actually better pollinators or not, but I do know moths also eat and kill the plants (yes, in that order), which contributes heavily to the wildfires in California. Bees overall have a much cleaner and less destructive influence on the environment. Whether they're more efficient pollinators or not shouldn't really be the scale by which their value is measured.

Re:

[dryeo]

I think it is a language problem, moth larva vs adult moth. Adult moths are often good pollinators, moth larva eat plants. The article is talking about adult moths I believe.
There is also a huge number of moth species and not all moth larva are destructive on the environment. Think of the brambles they mention, likely Himalayan black berries. Any moth larva that specializes on them would be a plus, at least here in N. America where they're an invasive species. And even then, not so much if they also attack

Dumbledor is an archaic term for Bumblebee

[sursurrus]

and also for a type of beetle called a 'Cockchafer'

You can't make shit like this up!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Re:Bees make it up in volume?

[rossdee]

and the larvae of moths eat the fruit, - the bee larvae stay in the hive

Bees eat more pollen

[algaeman]

Making them less effective pollinators. Thanks Dr Ric Romero!

Different plants entirely

[bradley13]

Even if true, this is completely irrelevant. Bees and moths pollinate entirely different plants.

Re:

[chas.williams]

I wondered about that. More than a few flowers close at night, so it's not immediately obvious how this is relevant to pollinating flowers in general.

Re:

[dryeo]

Yet the summary referenced brambles, which produce blackberries, a plant that is usually pollinated by bees.

Propaganda?

[Qbertino]

This sounds suspiciously like some Info-war plug to de-emphasize the dire situation of bees and the overall eco-disaster that is modern agri-monoculture and dusting and crop-treatment with long chain chemicals of which that we have no idea about the long term effects.

How in hell are moths overall better at pollination than bees when bees entire life cycle has pollination as a key component and bees - unlike moths - come in (hundred) thousands per colony?

I call b*llsh*t on this one. This is some fringe study about individual insects and seems to me like a deliberate distraction from the real problem.

Re:

[phantomfive]

This sounds suspiciously like some Info-war plug to de-emphasize the dire situation of bees

Bees aren't in a dire situation.

How in hell are moths overall better at pollination than bees

It might help to read the article. It might.

Re:

[Gilgaron]

The article isn't all that great. Which species pollinates what plants best is going to be species dependent for the plants and so on. The original paper focuses on blackberries/bramble. So it is interesting that moths are more important for blackberries. From the inchworms I get, I'm sure the moths like raspberries as well. What doesn't carry forward is the article citing the paper and insinuating that other crops aren't more importantly pollinated by bees. I would suppose additional crops have flie

Re:

[seth_hartbecke]

My Wife recently took an interest in Bees, and we've decided to get a Bee Hive (we're rural enough we can do this). It's much more her project than mine. But, here's a few things I've learned from her as she took her classes on how to do this, and read a few chapters of the books.

Bees are not native to North America. The colonists brought them over from Europe, and the Native American's used to call them "white man's fly." That fact alone massively shifted my thought process around the scare around co

Re:

[Gilgaron]

Yes it is my understanding that colony collapse is more important for agriculture than for wild plants. Not that they're expert entomologists, but in a conversation I had with some meadery brewers they seemed to think that a large part of the issue with colony collapse was that people were taking too much of the honey, replacing it with corn syrup, and that this left the bees unwell enough to make all the other health problems they face worse (whether from mites, pesticides, or other stressors).

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Honey Bees are not native to North America.
FTFY.
We have plenty of native bees who pollinate things.

Re:

[Ogive17]

I read the summary as quite the opposite, bees are still very important but let's not forget about the contribution moths make. A moth is more efficient at pollination vs a bee (1 to 1). This does not mean moths do more overall pollination, simply that a moth is more effective.

And with moth populations dropping, it's important to remember they are also important to the ecosystem.

Brought to you by Neonicotinoids Inc.

[emeade]

Thank goodness we can stop caring about yet another extinction. /s

Make it ???

[BeWebbbb]

I learn a lot by reading you, I saw a similar topic on this site: https://tipy.be/ [tipy.be]

True,

[TronNerd82]

But moths get distracted by the lÃmp.

Re:

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

The lämp?

Re:

[TronNerd82]

Yes, the Lämp, I tried to do the diaeresis a from my phone but it didn't translate well into Slashdot.

Logical truism

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

> moths are more efficient pollinators at night than day-flying pollinators such as bees

--> well sure, bees are not as efficient as moths, at night. Because they sleep.

But Wil Oprah

[Your Anus]

give away moths instead of bees?