The National Biodiversity Data Centre is set to roll out a scheme to monitor moth populations on farms across the country later this year.
The centre oversees the management of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan which includes a monitoring scheme so that progress in halting wild pollinator decline can be tracked.
The scheme, funded jointly by Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and National Parks and Wildlife Service (DAFM), monitors five pollinator groups across a range of semi-natural habitats, farmland, and urban parks.
There is a fixed network of monitoring sites for bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies, hoverflies and moths.
Moth monitoring scheme
Since 2022, the National Biodiversity Data Centre has collaborated with DAFM on a pilot project to test moth monitoring methods with farmers in Kildare and Donegal.
Dr. Úna FitzPatrick, chief scientific officer with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, told Agriland that the role of moths as “incredibly important nocturnal pollinators” has become more apparent in recent years.
“We worked with a group of farmers to see if they could help us monitor moths on their farms, obviously moths are out at night, so they tend to be somewhat hidden.
“The pilots were fantastic. The farmers were brilliant, they really engaged and it’s amazing the diversity of moths that turn up on a farm or anywhere when you start looking,” she said.
Funding has now been provided by the department to roll this scheme out nationally with a view to tracking how moth populations are changing on farmland.
The project, due to kick off in the summer, will involve 100 farms from different locations.
As part of the monitoring farmers are asked to place a simple moth trap on their farm, which is essentially a specially adapted bucket with a light operated by a sensor to attract the insects at night.
The following morning farmers check the trap and photograph any moths they find inside and send the images back to the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
“In this project we’re going to ask farmers to do it every fortnight from April to September. That will give fantastic data on what’s happening with moths on farms,” Fitzpatrick said.
Farmland
Based on the information collected through the two pilot studies, Dr. Fitzpatrick said that there can be quite a good diversity in moths when a different range of farmland types are selected.
Despite the poor weather in 2023, the traps placed on farms in Donegal picked up plenty of moths.
“The problem is that we don’t have a great understanding of what might still occur across farm lands and that’s exactly what this project will help us to determine,” she said.
There are thousands of different moths, with the smaller insects referred to as micro moths and the larger known as macro-moths of which were are around 580 different species.
“Regardless of where you are, where your farm is or how intense it is, to be honest, you can still pick up quite a diversity of different moth species and some of them are absolutely beautiful insects, as beautiful as butterflies often,” Fitzpatrick said.
Moths can be found on natural pieces of land which may be less intensive on the farm, such as hedgerows, meadows, woodland or non-farmed areas.
“They were overlooked, to be honest, for years and years and now there’s much greater understanding.
“They’re actually quite important pollinators, particularly of our native flora so they’re carrying out really important work while we’re sleeping,” Fitzpatrick said.
The National Biodiversity Data Centre is currently seeking to appoint a Farmer Moth Monitoring Officer to have responsibility for delivery of this new monitoring scheme.
The closing date for applications for this position is 5:00p.m on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
Once the manager has been appointed recruitment of farmers for the project will begin.