Butterflies use static electricity to catch pollen grains

Mooney Goes Wild contributer Terry Flanagan shares his latest round of nature news.

You might find it hard to believe, but butterflies and moths can collect static electricity while in flight. Even more astounding is that this static electricity can then be used to pull pollen grains across air gaps of millimetres and sometimes even centimetres.

This finding was discovered by a team of researchers from Bristol University and recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

The team also observed that the amount of static electricity carried by butterflies and moths varies between different species. This is the first evidence to suggest that the amount of static electricity an animal accumulates is a trait that can be adaptive, and thus evolution can act upon it by natural selection.

Their study involved 269 butterflies and moths across 11 different species native to five different continents and inhabiting multiple different ecological niches. They were then then able to compare between them and see if these ecological factors correlated with their charge, establishing if static charging is a trait that evolution can act upon.

Lead author Dr Sam England from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, explained: "We already knew that many species of animal accumulate static electricity as they fly, most likely through friction with the air. There had also been suggestions that this static electricity might improve the ability of flower-visiting animals, like bees and hummingbirds, to pollinate, by attracting pollen using electrostatic attraction.

"However, it wasn't known whether this idea applied to the wider array of equally important pollinators, such as butterflies and moths. So, we set out to test this idea, and see if butterflies and moths also accumulate charge, and if so, whether this charge is enough to attract pollen from flowers onto their bodies. A clearer picture is developing of how the influence of static electricity in pollination may be very powerful and widespread."

Dr England concluded: "We've discovered that butterflies and moths accumulate so much static electricity when flying, that pollen is literally pulled through the air towards them as they approach a flower.

"This means that they don't even need to touch flowers in order to pollinate them, making them very good at their jobs as pollinators, and highlighting just how important they might be to the functioning of our flowery ecosystems.