Settling moths are the vital component of pollination in Himalayan ecosystem of North-East India, pollen transfer network approach revealed

Abstract

Majority of the pollination related studies are based on the diurnal pollinators, and the nocturnal pollinators received less scientific attention. We reveal the significance of settling moths in pollination of angiosperm families in Himalayan ecosystem of North-East India. The refined and novel method of pollen extraction from the proboscides provides a more robust assessment of the pollen carrying capacity. The study is based on one of the largest data sets (140 pollen transporter moth species (PTMS)), with interpretation based on seasonal as well as altitudinal data. In the present study about 65% moths (91 species) carried sufficient quantities of pollen grains to be considered as potential pollinators (PPMS). Teliphasa sp. (Crambidae) and Cuculia sp. (Noctuidae) are found to carry the highest quantity of pollen. We found pollen grains of 21 plant families and the abundant pollen are from Betulaceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae and Ericaceae. Species composition of PTMS and PPMS in pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon revealed the dominance of Geometridae. Maximum diversity of PTMS and PPMS is found from 2000 to 2500 m altitude. The nocturnal pollen transfer network matrices exhibited high degree of selectivity (H2ʹ = 0.86).

Moth community among apples during bloom in Northwest Arkansas: likely pollinators and activity periods

“…These two species and several other captured noctuids, namely Agrotis ipsilon Hufnagel, Elaphria grata Hübner, Galgula partita Guenée, Helicoverpa zea Boddie, and Megalographa biloba Stephens, have been recognized as potential pollinators in other systems (Wiggam and Ferguson 2005, LeCroy et al 2013, Robertson et al 2020, Ribas-Marquès et al 2022). In fact, noctuids have increasingly received attention for their role as pollinators (Hahn and Brühl 2016, Van Zandt et al 2020, He et al 2022, Singh et al 2022). Noctuidae is likely more valuable in agriculture for its pollination services than previously considered and should be targeted in future pollination studies.…”

Lepidoptera proboscis pollens are mainly derived from nectar

“…In Mallorca, the major island of the Balearic archipelago in the western Mediterranean, researchers found that moths’ niche overlap was larger than that of the plants (Ribas-Marquès et al, 2022). In the Himalayan ecosystem of North-East India, settling moths were found to be the vital component of pollination (Singh et al, 2022). In the Yunnan Province of Southwest China, the researchers identified 554 species of pollinating butterflies, and their potential pollinating service could be a great contribution to montane agriculture, which has expanding areas of cash crops and fruit horticulture (Zhang et al, 2020).…”

“…In the Yunnan Province of Southwest China, the researchers identified 554 species of pollinating butterflies, and their potential pollinating service could be a great contribution to montane agriculture, which has expanding areas of cash crops and fruit horticulture (Zhang et al, 2020). Except the above spatial research, the temporal research showed that the adult Lepidoptera were often complementary to the diurnal pollinators (Singh et al, 2022;Souza et al, 2022). The adult Lepidoptera even visit more flower species than bees (Walton et al, 2020).…”

Do nocturnal pollinators carry a more conspecific pollen load than diurnal ones?

“…A few previous studies in temperate regions focus on moths and suggest their potential roles in plant-pollinator networks by showing that moths captured in light traps carry pollen.Three to 10 %, 76% and 20.7% of captured moths in a boreal forest in Scotland (Devoto et al, 2011), in a biodiversity hotspot in Portugal (Banza et al, 2015) and in the Balearic Islands (Ribas-Marquès et al, 2022), respectively, carried pollen. In the Himalayas, 65% of settling moths from which pollen was extracted from proboscices were considered potential pollinators (Singh et al, 2022). To promote plant reproduction by outcrossing, moths must not only carry pollen but also transfer it to conspecific plants.…”