{"id":34424,"date":"2018-10-30T18:09:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T12:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34424"},"modified":"2018-11-16T17:27:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T11:57:52","slug":"moths-are-key-to-pollination-in-himalayan-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/moths-are-key-to-pollination-in-himalayan-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"Moths are key to pollination in Himalayan ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/moths-are-key-to-pollination-in-himalayan-ecosystem\/article25354080.ece\"><strong>Moths are key to pollination in Himalayan ecosystem<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>News: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A study was conducted recently by the\u00a0 Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) to reveal the moths as pollinators in the ecosystem.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Important Facts: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2. Under the project titled<em> \u201c<\/em>Assessment of Moths (<em>Lepidoptera<\/em>) As Significant Pollinators in the Himalayan Ecosystem of North Eastern India\u201d, scientists collected moth samples from different ecosystem to analyse the proboscis (elongated sucking mouthpart) of moths.<\/p>\n<p>3. Moths are widely considered as pests, but the recent study has revealed that these group of insects are pollinators to a number of flowering plants in the Himalayan ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>4. The study was carried out in states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal.<\/p>\n<p>5. The study was unique, as scientist are looking at a new group of insects (moths) as pollinators. Usually bees, wasps and butterflies are considered as prominent pollinators.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In India, estimates put the number of of moth species at nearly 12,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Proboscis as pollinating organ:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The analysis of proboscis, a long and thread-like organ used to suck flower sap, of a dozen moth species\u2019 revealed the presence of pollen grains.<\/li>\n<li>On observing the proboscis under scanning electron microscope, it was found that these structures are not only meant for sap sucking, but are also morphologically designed for pollination.<\/li>\n<li>According to the study , proboscis of different moths belonging to families of moths, such as <strong>Erebidae and Sphingidae<\/strong>, were found to contain pollen of several flowering plants, including Rhododendron.<\/li>\n<li>In some species of moths, the organ is found to be modified into a spine like structure and in others, a lateral canal to arrest and disperse pollen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>6.\u00a0 Importance of pollination: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>About 90% of the world\u2019s flowering plants are pollinated by animals.<\/li>\n<li>Therefore, pollinators are essential for the genetic exchange among flowering plants and the biodiversity among plants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>7. Decline in moth population:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Researchers have pointed out that almost two-thirds of common large moth species have declined over the last 40 years in some parts of world.<\/li>\n<li>One of main reasons for the decline is <strong>light pollution<\/strong> (an increase in artificial light in moth habitats).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-34431\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/poll-1.jpg?resize=628%2C162&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"628\" height=\"162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/poll-1.jpg?w=628&amp;ssl=1 628w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/poll-1.jpg?resize=150%2C39&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/poll-1.jpg?resize=300%2C77&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moths are key to pollination in Himalayan ecosystem News: A study was conducted recently by the\u00a0 Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) to reveal the moths as pollinators in the ecosystem. Important Facts: 2. Under the project titled \u201cAssessment of Moths (Lepidoptera) As Significant Pollinators in the Himalayan Ecosystem of North Eastern India\u201d, scientists collected moth&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/moths-are-key-to-pollination-in-himalayan-ecosystem\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Moths are key to pollination in Himalayan ecosystem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[292,576,217,785,786,784,787],"class_list":["post-34424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","tag-ecology","tag-ecology-and-environment","tag-gs-3","tag-moths","tag-moths-as-pollinators","tag-pollinating-organ","tag-pollination","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704675669},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}