Diversity and relevance of non-sphingid moths as pollinators in the Neotropics

Understanding the pollination mechanisms of \"settling moths\" (moths from families other than Sphingidae typically perched on corollas while feeding on flowers) in the Neotropics is crucial for assessing their contributions to plant reproduction and ecosystem resilience. Through extensive literature searches on Google Scholar and SCOPUS, this study identified 44 relevant studies from an initial pool of 410. These studies covered 37 ecoregions across over 30 million km², primarily focusing on natural habitats, with Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico as major contributors. The research on Neotropical moth pollination has surged since 2000, with Noctuoidea, Geometridae, and Pyraloidea as the most cited moth groups. Despite the significant progress in documenting moth pollination, our assessment of taxonomic resolution revealed a heavy reliance on field observations, underscoring the need for collaboration with taxonomists to improve species-level identifications and enrich ecological interpretat..., Our study focused on phalaenophily, or pollination by “settling moths”, (hereafter referred to as moths), encompassing all Lepidoptera except hawkmoths (Sphingidae) and butterflies (Papilionoidea). To identify relevant studies on pollinating moths, we conducted searches on Google Scholar and SCOPUS using the following combinations of terms (number of results in brackets): (“Settling moths”) and (Neotropic*) [97], (Phalaenophily) and (Neotropic*) [105], (Falenofilia) and (Neotropic*) [110]; and on SCOPUS, we employed the search string “Title, Abstract & Keywords” with the following terms: pollinat* AND (lepidoptera OR moth*) AND (neotrop*) [56], pollinat* AND (lepidoptera OR moths) AND (south AND merica) [38], phalaenophily AND (neotropic*) [1], (“Settling moths”) and (Neotropic*) [2], (Falenofilia) and (Neotropic*) [0], (Noctuidae) and (Neotropic*) and (Pollin*) [1]. We considered studies in any language, including Spanish, Portuguese and English. A study was included in the analysi..., , # Diversity and relevance of non-sphingid moths as pollinators in the Neotropics

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jwstqjqm2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jwstqjqm2)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: Settling\_moths\_Neotropical.xlsx

**Description:** 

All data is stored in one Excel file with one sheet. Below there is an explanation of the use and information contained:

##### Variables

* Work (number indicate the references from which the information was obtained, listed at the bottom of the table)
* Plant species
* Taxonomic family of the plant
* Moth species/taxon
* Taxonomic family of the moth
* Country were the study was carried out
* Year of the study
* Geographic coordinates of the collecting places cited in the work (decimal degrees)
* Methodological approach
* Observation only (Obs), Observation and identification of pollen grains on the observed species (PolObs), Identification of pollen grains on material collected with th...