飞蛾是传粉的无名英雄

飞蛾是传粉的无名英雄

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.

让我们来认识一下夜间最活跃的传粉者。是的，它就是谦虚的飞蛾。你可能会期待一些更炫的东西。也许是一只萤火虫。

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，正如城市野生动物保护组织的科学家特拉维斯·朗科在给汤姆·奥德的一个早期故事中所讲的那样，“在自然界中，往往是我们没有注意到的事情在起着很大的作用。”

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.

这个长着翅膀的毛茸茸的小球原来是一个传粉的发电机。事实上，根据伦敦大学学院的一项新研究，蛾子——最常在路灯和门廊灯光下装病——可能比它们在白天的同类蜜蜂和蝴蝶更有效地传播花粉。

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.

本周发表在《生物学快报》上的这项研究表明，飞蛾维持着遍布英国乡村的花粉运输网络，这可能对农作物产量至关重要。这可能是因为当飞蛾拜访许多和蜜蜂一样的植物时，它们也会拜访它们嗡嗡叫的兄弟们路过的植物。因此，它们的工作是对蜜蜂工作的补充，填补了生态缺口，确保了来自不同植物的花粉被广泛传播。

"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."

该研究的第一作者理查德·沃尔顿在一份新闻稿中指出:“夜蛾具有重要的但被忽视的生态作用。”它们补充了白天授粉者的工作，帮助保持植物种群的多样性和丰富性。它们还提供了自然生物多样性的支持，如果没有它们，更多的植物物种和动物，如鸟类和蝙蝠，依赖它们的食物，将面临危险。”

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.

飞蛾的传粉本领很容易被忽视——尤其是它们缺少蜜蜂用来从花中吸取花蜜的清晰的喙。不知怎么的，它们看起来就像更毛躁、更笨手笨脚的大黄蜂。但正是它们蓬松的毛发帮助它们收集货物。

"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."

沃尔顿解释说:“在花上觅食的时候，定居的飞蛾会坐在花上，它们毛茸茸的身体会触碰到花的生殖器官。”“这一愉快的意外帮助花粉在随后的采花过程中更容易地运输。”

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.

虽然科学家们刚刚开始追踪它们的影响程度，但蛾子夜间的活动并不是什么秘密。在之前的一项研究中，来自伦敦大学学院的研究人员发现，飞蛾传播花粉的距离比更局限的蜜蜂要远得多。

"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."

该研究的首席作者卡勒姆·麦格雷戈在2018年的一份新闻稿中解释说:“虽然蜜蜂是优秀的传粉者，但它们只会在巢穴的当地环境中传播。”“飞蛾似乎是蜜蜂工作的补充，它们可以将花粉带到更远的地方，因为它们与特定的景观没有同样的联系。”这可能有助于防止植物间的近亲繁殖。”

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.

事实上，我们对蛾子的秘密生活了解得越多，我们就越可能欣赏它们在夜间的劳动——至少像蜜蜂一样努力工作，把我们的白天世界变成现实。

"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.

“最近几十年，有很多科学研究关注独居和群居的蜜蜂，原因是担心它们数量的急剧下降，以及这对昆虫授粉作物产量产生的强烈负面影响，”研究报告的合著者简·阿克斯马赫(Jan Axmacher)在新闻稿中解释说。

"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，夜间活动的定居蛾——它们的种类比蜜蜂多得多——被授粉研究忽视了。我们的研究强调，迫切需要将它们纳入未来的农业管理和保护策略，以帮助茎下降，并进行更多的研究，以了解它们作为授粉者的独特和重要作用，包括它们目前在作物授粉中的未知作用。”