Not just pests: unravelling the hidden role of Pyralidae and Crambidae (Pyraloidea: Lepidoptera) as pollen transporters in the Eastern Himalayan ecosystem

Historically, the role of moths in pollination, particularly in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, has been rarely studied. Understanding their interactions with plants is important given the growing threats to biodiversity and the ecosystem services they support. Although Pyraloidea species are mainly regarded as pests of economical plants, we highlight their role in pollen transfer across several angiosperm families in the Eastern Himalayan ecosystem. We examined pollen loads on the proboscis of 179 pyraloid individuals representing 69 species to understand their contribution in pollen transportation. Pyraloid moths are found to carry pollen from 37 plant taxa, with families such as Fagaceae, Betulaceae and Rutaceae being the most abundant. Crambidae transported pollen of 30 different plant taxa, whereas Pyralidae transported pollen from 24 plant taxa. Network analysis for Pyraloidea revealed a specialisation value of H2′ = 0.64 for the pollen count-based network and H2′ = 0.19 for the interaction network, where higher values for H2′ indicate more specialist species compared to generalist ones in the network. These findings strengthen baseline information on moth–plant interactions and highlight the need to consider even less well-studied groups like Pyraloidea when developing policies related to ecosystem services.