Moth floral visitors of the three rewarding Platanthera orchids revealed by interval photography with a digital camera

Abstract

We investigated the insect visitors of Platanthera ussuriensis, Platanthera sachalinensis and Platanthera florentii, which might contribute to pollination, using a digital camera with automatic interval photography. Monitoring was conducted for a total of five nights (45 hours), and during every night, at least one moth species visited. The total number of pictures taken and pictures taken of moths were 3607 and 152, respectively. We concluded, based on our findings, that Geometridae and Noctuidae moths probably pollinated P.florentii and P.sachalinensis, respectively, whereas no pollinia attachment or removal was observed in P. ussuriensis during the intensive visit of the Crambidae moth.

Keywords:

• interval photography
• moth pollination
• Orchidaceae
• Platanthera
• pollinator

Acknowledgements

We thank Utsugi Jinbo for the moth identifications and Kiyoshi Kawaguchi for assistance in the field. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellowships for Young Scientists Grant to KS.