Global Pollinator Watch AIG 2024's Journal

Have you ever wondered where your favorite chocolate comes from? Chocolate relies on pollinators to fertilize the cacao flowers, which turn into the beans we use to create it. While bees take care of most of the pollinating around the world, we can also thank our tiny friends, the biting or chocolate midge. Chocolate midges, part of the Ceratopogonidae family and in the order Diptera (flies), only get to be up to 3 millimeters (about 0.12 in) long and are the perfect size to pollinate cacao flowers. Found in parts of Central America, South America, Asia, and Africa, chocolate midges thrive at night and are drawn to the seventy-five different aromas present in the opened cacao flowers.

Midges, especially adult males, are famous for joining together in swarms. Drawn to the different sound frequencies of the females’ wingbeats, male midges have been known to react to humans clapping and singing. The whole swarm will ‘leap’ or ‘dance’ to the beat of your song or clap.

With over 800 species of midges in North America and more than 4,000 species worldwide, it is likely you will come across at least a few of them in your own neighborhood. As you collect observations for Global Pollinator Watch, don’t forget about some of the additional functions and information available on iNaturalist.

Using iNaturalist, not only are you able to identify what species you’re looking at, but you can learn more about its habitat, abundance, region, and more. We hope that you can continue to upload your observations, identify more species, and participate in a global effort to help aid our world’s remarkable biodiversity. You never know, you might find a chocolate midge or a distant relative in your backyard or while walking the streets of your town.

As the sun sets, and most of the bees and butterflies and other pollinators find a safe space for the night, another crew heads out on their nightly nectar forays. In many parts of the world, bats are a part of this shift, and some flowers are entirely dependent upon them for providing critical pollination services. But there is another night team that scientists are learning more and more are also important for their work at night – the moths.

Moths may not be on our radar screens, though they certainly are for many insectivorous bats. We might see them gather around our porch lights by the dozens, street lights by the hundreds, or the monstrous lights at nighttime sporting events by the thousands. But they are also drawn to many species of wildflowers, flowering trees, ornamental plants, and even some agricultural crops. Our overwhelming use of artificial lighting actually draws them away from providing what may be essential ecological services.

The U.S. is home to about 12,000 species of butterflies and moths – together, the Lepidopterans – but only about 800 of those species are butterflies. The other 11,000+ are moths. At the global scale, moth species outnumber species of butterflies by about 9:1, and evidence suggests that butterflies actually evolved from moths to fill that daytime niche. And interestingly, some species of moths are also more active during the daytime. This includes hawkmoths, many of which resemble tiny hummingbirds.

Today, the role of moths as pollinators is still rather understudied. Recent studies in the Mediterranean, Brazil, New Zealand, Europe and North America point to their role being understated as well. Your observations of moths on flowers can help us better understand their role as pollinators. And this being National Moth Week, you can learn more about these denizens of the night here: https://nationalmothweek.org/ .