飛蛾是傳粉的無名英雄

飛蛾是傳粉的無名英雄

Meet the pollinator that does its best work at night. That's right. The modest moth. You may have been expecting something a little flashier. A firefly, perhaps.

讓我們來認(rèn)識一下夜間最活躍的傳粉者。是的，它就是謙虛的飛蛾。你可能會期待一些更炫的東西。也許是一只螢火蟲。

But, as Travis Longcore, a scientist at the Urban Wildlands Group, told Tom Oder for an earlier story, "Often in nature it's the things we don't notice that are doing a lot of the work."

但是，正如城市野生動物保護(hù)組織的科學(xué)家特拉維斯·朗科在給湯姆·奧德的一個(gè)早期故事中所講的那樣，“在自然界中，往往是我們沒有注意到的事情在起著很大的作用。”

Photo: Vlasto Opatovsky/Shutterstock

And this little ball of winged fuzziness turns out to be a pollinating dynamo. In fact, according to a new study from the University of London College, moths — most often seen malingering under street lamps and porch lights — may be more effective at spreading pollen than their daytime counterparts, bees and butterflies.

這個(gè)長著翅膀的毛茸茸的小球原來是一個(gè)傳粉的發(fā)電機(jī)。事實(shí)上，根據(jù)倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院的一項(xiàng)新研究，蛾子——最常在路燈和門廊燈光下裝病——可能比它們在白天的同類蜜蜂和蝴蝶更有效地傳播花粉。

The research, published this week in Biology Letters, suggests moths maintain a pollen transportation network across the English countryside that may be crucial to crop yields. That may be because while moths visit many of the same plants as bees, they also attend plants that their buzzing brethren pass over. As a result, their work complements that of bees, filling in ecological gaps and ensuring pollen from a diversity of plants is carried far and wide.

本周發(fā)表在《生物學(xué)快報(bào)》上的這項(xiàng)研究表明，飛蛾維持著遍布英國鄉(xiāng)村的花粉運(yùn)輸網(wǎng)絡(luò)，這可能對農(nóng)作物產(chǎn)量至關(guān)重要。這可能是因?yàn)楫?dāng)飛蛾拜訪許多和蜜蜂一樣的植物時(shí)，它們也會拜訪它們嗡嗡叫的兄弟們路過的植物。因此，它們的工作是對蜜蜂工作的補(bǔ)充，填補(bǔ)了生態(tài)缺口，確保了來自不同植物的花粉被廣泛傳播。

"Nocturnal moths have an important but overlooked ecological role," notes study lead author Richard Walton in a press release. "They complement the work of daytime pollinators, helping to keep plant populations diverse and abundant. They also provide natural biodiversity back-up, and without them many more plant species and animals, such as birds and bats that rely on them for food, would be at risk."

該研究的第一作者理查德·沃爾頓在一份新聞稿中指出:“夜蛾具有重要的但被忽視的生態(tài)作用。”它們補(bǔ)充了白天授粉者的工作，幫助保持植物種群的多樣性和豐富性。它們還提供了自然生物多樣性的支持，如果沒有它們，更多的植物物種和動物，如鳥類和蝙蝠，依賴它們的食物，將面臨危險(xiǎn)。”

It's easy to overlook the pollinating prowess of moths — especially since they lack the clearly defined proboscis that bees use to hoover nectar from flowers. They somehow come off as shaggier, even more bumbling versions of bumblebees. But it's their very shagginess that helps them gather the goods.

飛蛾的傳粉本領(lǐng)很容易被忽視——尤其是它們?nèi)鄙倜鄯溆脕韽幕ㄖ形』鄣那逦泥?。不知怎么的，它們看起來就像更毛躁、更笨手笨腳的大黃蜂。但正是它們蓬松的毛發(fā)幫助它們收集貨物。

"Settling moths sit on the flower while feeding, with their often distinctly hairy bodies touching the flower's reproductive organs," Walton explains. "This happy accident helps pollen to be easily transported during subsequent flower visits."

沃爾頓解釋說:“在花上覓食的時(shí)候，定居的飛蛾會坐在花上，它們毛茸茸的身體會觸碰到花的生殖器官。”“這一愉快的意外幫助花粉在隨后的采花過程中更容易地運(yùn)輸。”

While scientists are just beginning to track the extent of their influence, moths' nighttime labors aren't exactly a secret. In a previous study, researchers from University of London College found moths spread pollen across much greater distances than more localized bees.

雖然科學(xué)家們剛剛開始追蹤它們的影響程度，但蛾子夜間的活動并不是什么秘密。在之前的一項(xiàng)研究中，來自倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，飛蛾傳播花粉的距離比更局限的蜜蜂要遠(yuǎn)得多。

"While bees are excellent pollinators, they will only travel within the local environment of the nest," that study’s lead author Callum Macgregor explained in a 2018 press release. "Moths appear to complement the work of bees and can carry pollen over greater distances as they don't have the same ties to a particular part of the landscape. Potentially, this might help to prevent inbreeding among plants."

該研究的首席作者卡勒姆·麥格雷戈在2018年的一份新聞稿中解釋說:“雖然蜜蜂是優(yōu)秀的傳粉者，但它們只會在巢穴的當(dāng)?shù)丨h(huán)境中傳播。”“飛蛾似乎是蜜蜂工作的補(bǔ)充，它們可以將花粉帶到更遠(yuǎn)的地方，因?yàn)樗鼈兣c特定的景觀沒有同樣的聯(lián)系。”這可能有助于防止植物間的近親繁殖。”

Indeed, the more we learn about the secret life of moths, the more we may come to appreciate the labor they perform on the night shift — working at least as hard as bees to bring our daytime world to life.

事實(shí)上，我們對蛾子的秘密生活了解得越多，我們就越可能欣賞它們在夜間的勞動——至少像蜜蜂一樣努力工作，把我們的白天世界變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。

"In recent decades, there has been a lot of science focus on solitary and social bees driven by concerns about their dramatic decline and the strong negative effect this has had on insect-pollinated crop yields," study co-author Jan Axmacher explains in the release.

“最近幾十年，有很多科學(xué)研究關(guān)注獨(dú)居和群居的蜜蜂，原因是擔(dān)心它們數(shù)量的急劇下降，以及這對昆蟲授粉作物產(chǎn)量產(chǎn)生的強(qiáng)烈負(fù)面影響，”研究報(bào)告的合著者簡·阿克斯馬赫(Jan Axmacher)在新聞稿中解釋說。

"In contrast, nocturnal settling moths — which have many more species than bees — have been neglected by pollination research. Our study highlights an urgent need for them to be included in future agricultural management and conservation strategies to help stem declines, and for more research to understand their unique and vital role as pollinators, including their currently unknown role in crop pollination."

相比之下，夜間活動的定居蛾——它們的種類比蜜蜂多得多——被授粉研究忽視了。我們的研究強(qiáng)調(diào)，迫切需要將它們納入未來的農(nóng)業(yè)管理和保護(hù)策略，以幫助莖下降，并進(jìn)行更多的研究，以了解它們作為授粉者的獨(dú)特和重要作用，包括它們目前在作物授粉中的未知作用。”