Moths Are More Efficient Pollinators Than Bees, Shows New Research (phys.org) 34
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!"
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 (Score:3)
Which means we need to genetically engineer bees to make em as big as moths
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Beaver sized bees?
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I don't know if it's the article (Score:4)
Re: I don't know if it's the article (Score:3)
First link in the summary goes to the original paper: https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]
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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.
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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 (Score:2)
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? (Score:5, Informative)
and the larvae of moths eat the fruit, - the bee larvae stay in the hive
Bees eat more pollen (Score:2)
Different plants entirely (Score:4, Interesting)
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Yet the summary referenced brambles, which produce blackberries, a plant that is usually pollinated by bees.
Propaganda? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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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
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FTFY.
We have plenty of native bees who pollinate things.
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And with moth populations dropping, it's important to remember they are also important to the ecosystem.
Brought to you by Neonicotinoids Inc. (Score:1)
Thank goodness we can stop caring about yet another extinction. /s
Make it ??? (Score:1)
True, (Score:1)
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The lämp?
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Logical truism (Score:2)
> 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 (Score:3)