An analysis of nocturnal moth visitation to the flora of the Ketona dolomite glades of Bibb County, Alabama, USA

Background/Question/Methods

Beyond studies of hawkmoth pollination and research focusing on a specialist pollinator relationship between certain moth and plant species, there is a significant lack of knowledge concerning nocturnal moth pollination ecology. The extent of reports about moth flower visitation describes some observed activity by certain species of moths (namely of the Noctuidae, Pyralidae, Erebidae, and Geometridae), but these observations have not been wholly related to answering community level questions about pollination or visitation of nocturnal moths to plants.  Furthermore, studies that have tried to assess the significance of nocturnal moth pollination are generally confounding; the gap between ecological modeling and pollination ecology leaves us with many unanswered questions about pollination and visitation networks between animals and plants.  However, can evidence of visitation by nocturnal moths to flowering plants reveal any potential network structure of nocturnal moth-to-flower visitation at the dolomite glades of Bibb County, Alabama USA?  This eleven-mile stretch of glades is an interesting habitat for many rare and endemic plants, is the site of highest biodiversity in the state of Alabama, and pollination biology at the glades has not been previously studied. For the past year (May 2011 – October 2011) fellow students of the Birmingham-Southern College Biology Department have been conducting a nocturnal moth survey of The Nature Conservancy’s 1.94km² Kathy Stiles Freeland Preserve of the dolomite glade community.  After black light trapping these moths every month, the moths are killed, pinned, identified, and mounted for collection. 253 moth specimens of the Geomatridae, Pyralidae, Noctuidae, and Erebidae families will be examined for pollen grains on body parts on which Lepidoptera has traditionally carried pollen (mouthparts, legs, antennae, eyes, and wings).  This pollen will be collected and viewed using a light microscope to record pollen size, quantity, and morphology and then crosschecked with a pollen reference collection constructed from the flora of the Kathy Stiles Freeland Preserve.  Pollen from the moth specimens will then be matched to the lowest plant taxon possible.  

Results/Conclusions

Preliminary results show that pollen grains taken from analysis of twenty-two specimens of six species of moths in the Geometridae and Erebidae families match grain morphology and size in the pollen reference collection to nine different plant species, all of which have not previously been associated with moth visitation in the literature we have read.  These associations may give new insight for further study of moth generalization and specialization.