Moths help food grow more than thought, scientists discovering
Conservation groups are surveying moths this summer and Nova Scotia researchers say they play a crucial, and little-known role pollinating plants.
"The ones we might think about as being a bit boring might be the ones putting food on our plates," says Paul Manning, a PhD student in zoology at Oxford University who is originally from Canning, N.S.
"It's massively understudied. When people think about pollinators they tend to think immediately of the honey bee."
The Nature Conservancy of Canada and experts with the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes are surveying moths in Ontario between June and September.
Efforts to get rid of gypsy moths have been raising concerns in British Columbia. The moths aren't native to Canada and defoliate trees and shrubs.
But other types of moths are more productive.
Manning participated in research with Dalhousie that found moths play a significant role pollinating lowbush blueberries, an industry worth about $56 million annually.
Moths are nocturnal and their nightly work is more difficult to track. They also don't get the same public affection as their flashier cousins.
"Butterflies are beautiful, we think of them as beautiful. They're colourful … but moths we associate them being a little more drab, brown, dull grey" says Deb Moreau, an entomologist at the Atlantic Food and Horticulture Research Centre in Kentville, N.S.
She says moths may actually be better pollinators than butterflies.
"They're fuzzy, hairier and there's more of them to pick up the pollen," she says, adding that people should keep them in mind the next time they swat them away.
