Zygaenidae, more little known pollinators

Harrisina americana (Grapeleaf Skeletonizer) on common milkweed

Another family of moths with a number of species that visit flowers is Zygaenidae. Many of them are day flying moths and, as usual, they are more colorful than night flying ones. Some are known to pollinate orchids. Their larvae feed on foliage, eating everything but the veins of leaves, so one common name for them is leaf-skeletonizers.

Acoloithus falsarius (Clemens' False Skeletonizer)

Two of them are frequently seen on milkweed flowers, the grapeleaf skeletonizer and Clemen's false skeletonizer. They are both dark blue or blue gray with a bright orange collar. The Clemen's moth is smaller than the grapeleaf skeletonizer. What is interesting about this imitative pattern is that it also mimics that of another common flower visitor, the yellow-collared scape moth. As mentioned before, the latter is toxic to predators and uses its colors to advertise its toxicity. The same thing is true of members of the Zygaenidae family. These, as well as some beetles, form part of a large mimicry complex, a fine example of Mullerian mimicry, in which they all benefit from this use of a similar warning pattern; predators need to learn their lesson only once, so more members of the guild escape attacks.

Cisseps fulvicollis (Yellow-collared Scape Moth). An unrelated moth member of the guild

Asclera ruficollis (Red-necked False Blister Beetle). A bettle member of the same mimicry guild

Another Zygaenidae that frequents flowers is the orange-patched smoky moth. Its wings are dark gray or black near the farther tip; the front half is orange. They too are members of another group of moths and also beetles with a pattern that warns predators. You can see some in a previous post: the black and yellow lichen moth and the end band net-wing lycid beetle.

Pyromorpha dimidiata (Orange-patched Smoky Moth)

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Noctuids, another family of little known pollinators

Cirrhophanus triangulifer (Goldenrod Stowaway)

The noctuids or owlet moths are part of a very large family, perhaps the largest one of Lepidoptera; although some of the subfamilies deserve to be considered as families in their own right. The taxonomy is still in flux.

The name Noctuidae of this family means night or nocturnal. One would think that these are night moths and many of them, in fact, are. But in such large family there are many representatives that choose to fly during the day. Once again some of these tend to be more colorful than night fliers. And, once again the day fliers are more likely to visit flowers and to be pollinators.

Alypia octomaculata (Eight-spotted Forester), a colorful noctuid moth

A number of them are found on flowers sipping nectar and are probably pollinators; although, once again, very little is known about this activity.

Here are a few of the most common ones:

Xestia c-nigrum/dolosa complex

Nephelodes minians (Bronzed Cutworm)

Lacinipolia renigera (Bristly Cutworm)

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Robbers and cheaters and innocent bystanders

Bumble bee robbing nectar

Some flower visitors don't hesitate to rob nectar without paying their dues. They either don't bother or can't enter the flower the "legitimate" way, and thus, ensure picking up pollen along the way and delivering it to the next flower. Instead they take a shortcut, slashing the throat of the flower and going right to the source. Carpenter bees can be among the most notorious robbers because of their strong and sharp mouth parts that enable them to perforate the walls of a flower; but other large insects can be just as bad.

Abelia flowers with slashed throats

Tubular or trumpet shaped flowers are the most frequent victims of this larceny because their nectar is hard to reach. Here are some abelias that have been robbed. You can see the scar at the base of the flower.

Sometimes smaller bees or other insects take advantage of the shortcut and visit the wound, like this beetle, which also happens to parasitize the nests of bumble bees.

Sap-feeding beetle Epuraea aestiva

 In this case something more tragic happened. A small bug ventured deep inside the flower and became tangled, its legs sticking out of the hole, and unable to go in or out or turn around. I thought that I may be able to help it and by the way find out the identity of the victim; but my clumsy old fingers couldn't perform this delicate task. I never found out who this innocent bystander was. Any guesses?

An insect trapped inside the flower

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Cisseps fulvicollis, a better known moth pollinator

It is nice to talk for a change about a moth pollinator that is a little better known. The yellow-collared scape moth or Cisseps fulvicollis, is an avid visitor of a large variety of flowers and it is large enough and colorful enough to be noticed by many.

The wings, head and appendages are slate-black. It has a bright collar, that it is usually orange, rather than yellow despite its common name. The body is metallic blue. It is considerably more common than its relative, the black and yellow lichen moth.

It has been reported nectaring at a wide array of flowers of different families, both during the day and after sunset. Milkweeds and asters are among the most commonly visited; also sunflowers, goldenrods, blazing stars and smartweeds. They take nectar from several of the eupatoriums, such as boneset and Joe-pye weed.

Their association with Eupatorium is interesting because these plants carry toxic alkaloids which seem to provide a defense against predators. It is usually the adult male that feeds on Eupatorium and it passes the toxins as a gift to the female when it mates. She, in turn, gives them to the eggs, protecting them from predators.

The caterpillars feed on grasses, rushes, corn, Eupatorium and Solidago (goldenrod)

See also: Yellow-collared scape moth
Cisseps fulvicollis. Bugguide

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Crambid Snout Moths. More little known pollinators

Unindentified crambid moth on goldenrod, drinking nectar with its long tongue

The Crambid Snout Moths or Crambidae are a large family of moths that used to be grouped with the pyralid moths. The name refers to the proboscis, the mouth appendage. Most of them are little and rather insignificant in appearance and go unnoticed by most of us; a handful are active during the day and tend to be a little more colorful. A few crambids are flower visitors. None, with one exception, is known for sure to be pollinators, but we know that they take nectar and may perform pollination.

So, here is the exception, and it is an interesting one: a moth that depends on the senita cactus. In turn the cactus depends on the moth for pollination, a nice example of mutualism. It is the Upiga virescens (common name senita moth); a non-descript little creature that carries pollen from flower to flower of the Lophocereus cactus and its larvae feeds on the seeds of this plant. Sorry, no photos.
Among the more colorful crambids that visit flowers are the Desmia Grape Leaffolder, the Raspberry Pyrausta, and the Orange Mint Moth.

Desmia Grape Leaffolder (Desmia sp.) trapped by a carnivorous sundew

Raspberry Pyrausta (Pyrausta signatalis)

Orange Mint Moth (Pyrausta orphisalis)

The Spotted Webworm Moth and the Hawaiian Beet Webworm are perhaps a little less conspicuous. The latter is not a native moth, introduced from Hawaii as the name indicates.

Spotted Webworm Moth (Hymenia perspectalis)

Hawaiian Beet Webworm (Spoladea recurvalis)

The Celery Leaftier is very plain as are a large number of members of this family.

Celery leaftier (Udea rubigalis)

All of these are seen visiting flowers during the day. It is possible that they also visit night flowers and there may be many more nocturnal flower visitors that we don't know of. In many cases, their caterpillars are better known than the adults for the damage they cause. Names such as leaftier, webworm, leaffolder show this.

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Pine Barrens, Plants and their Pollinators

Pine tree shedding pollen

The Pine Barrens of New Jersey is well worth a visit. The Pinelands Preservation Alliance is dedicated to preserve this unique treasure. Let us take a look at some of the pollinators of its plant community.

The predominant tree and the one that gives the name to the place is the pine tree, especially the pitch pine (Pinus rigida). It uses the wind for pollen transport. This ancient method of pollination existed long before there were any flowering plants or any pollen carriers. The features that make wind pollination possible are: the production of vast amounts of pollen and the relative proximity of plants to each other.

Some members of the flowering plants group have reverted to the time honored tradition of wind pollination; they do just fine without the help of pollinators. Such are oaks, birches, most maples, grasses and sedges, among others. Notice that such plants grow fairly close to each other and produce abundant pollen.

Plants that employ the services of pollinators invest some of their energy in producing flowers that attract and recompense the visitors. This investment is compensated by the reduced need to produce large amounts of pollen. Flowers have an array of different techniques to accomplish this. Here are some found in the Pine Barrens.

Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana). Magnolias are among the oldest flowering plants. Their ancestors resorted to the only available pollinators at that time, rather clumsy ones, such as beetles. Beetles mouth parts are good for biting and chewing, not for delicately gathering pollen and nectar. They chew on the flowers along with feeding on some pollen and can make a big mess. Magnolias continue to be pollinated mostly by beetles and they tend to have rather tough, leathery petals to protect themselves against such insults.

Wild cherry (Prunus serotina). The shape of its flowers is relatively simple and open, its pollen and nectar are easy to reach, thus a large number of species of bees and even other insects visit these flowers. Some of these flies mimic bees very skillfully and manage to fool not only hungry birds but even some human observers.

Mountain laurel in bloom

Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). This attractive flower has a very peculiar shape. The anthers (the part of the flower that carries the pollen) remain caught inside little pockets made by the petals; their stalks or filaments remain taut and ready to snap. When an insect lands on the flower they spring to action. Each anther comes out of the pocket and gives the insect a good dusting of pollen.

Blueberries, cranberries (Vaccinium corymbosum, Vaccinium macrocarpon and others). The anthers of these flowers are shaped very differently from those of most other flowers. They don’t split open exposing the pollen; instead they have an opening at the end of the anther. The way to get the pollen out requires some skillful work by the pollinator. It has to hang on to the flower and give it a good shake; the way you shake a salt shaker. Some bumblebees and many other native bees are very adept at this task. The blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa), can pollinate so many flowers in her short adult life of a few weeks that her labor can result on $20 worth of blueberries, probably more at today’s prices.

Honey bees, on the other hand, never learned how to perform this task. They do visit blueberries and cranberries and accomplish pollination although not as efficiently as the native bees and bumblebees. However, large blueberry and cranberry operations resort to honey bees because of the convenience of placing hives on the fields and because such large tracts of land fail to provide nesting places for native bees. Pollinating these berries is stressful for honey bees; they are not well adapted to such diet and suffer as a consequence. Wild grown berries, on the other hand, get all their needed pollination from native bees.

Lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule). The lovely orchid known as lady slipper can play unpleasant tricks on pollinators; its elaborate shape is nothing but a seductive trap with a complicated escape route. The flower yields an aroma that some bees find irresistible. When they reach the flower, they perch at the edge of the sac and frequently slip and fall. Soon they find that they can’t get out the way they came in because the inside walls are very slippery and the lip of the sac curves inwards making it even harder. Fortunately the orchid has provided a ladder at the back of the flower and a very narrow passage that leads back to freedom. The bee that struggles through this tunnel gets a sac of pollen, called pollinia, stuck to its back. It will remember the unfortunate experience long enough to move away from that patch of orchids; but shortly afterward, it will be quite willing to repeat the experience because its little brain will have forgotten all about it.

Magnolias and Beetle Pollination
Lady slipper

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Inchworms: more little known pollinators

Inchworm (Eupithecia) on coneflower

Another group of not well known pollinator moths are the members of the Geometrid family, better known as inchworms. The name refers to the peculiar way their caterpillars move around inch by inch like measuring the distance they traverse. The scientific name also refers to the caterpillars. Some of these caterpillars can be found on flowers, but of course, they are not likely to do any pollination, since they don't move very far when feeding on the nutritious flowers.

Inchworm (Alsophila pometaria) showing its characteristic gait

This is a family that, unlike the previous ones has a good number of pollinators, both diurnal and nocturnal. The ones that fly at night are usually collected by attracting them to lights and, unfortunately, there is very little research about their flower visiting activities. A little more is known about the role as pollinators of the ones that visit flowers during the day; but not much.

Chickweed Geometer (Haematopis grataria)

Day fliers can be colorful, in contrast to night fliers. The chickweed geometer and the white-striped black moth fall somewhere in the middle between colorful and drab. But the white tipped black moth could compete with many butterflies with its orange body and dark blue wings with white tips.

The only thing that we can say for certain about geometrid moths is that many of them visit flowers regularly and probably accomplish some pollination.

Family Geometridae

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