美国有线新闻 CNN 研究表明飞蛾在授粉过程中发挥重要作用（在线收听）

Salt Marsh, Atlas and Indian Meal are all types of what? Vultures, moths, herbs or peat. These are all types of moths, insects that often fly by night.

盐沼、阿特拉斯、印度谷螟都是什么的类型？秃鹫、飞蛾、草本植物还是泥炭？这些都是飞蛾的类型，飞蛾是通常在夜间飞行的昆虫。

Those are just three of the 160,000 species of moths and new research suggests they may play an important role in pollination. How do scientists know this? A few years ago in Norfolk, England, researchers swabbed more than 800 moths and then studied the pollen on them. It wasn't a direct study of pollination, the process that fertilizes plants and produces seeds, but instead a look at how pollen is transported.

这些只是16万种飞蛾中的3种，新研究表明，飞蛾可能在授粉过程中发挥着重要作用。科学家是怎么知道的？几年前，研究人员在英国诺福克采集了800多只飞蛾，然后对它们身上的花粉展开研究。这并非直接研究授粉过程——即植物受精并产生种子的过程，而是观察花粉运输的方式。

That's an important early part of the pollination process. Scientists found that more than 45 percent of the moths they studied had visited dozens of different plant species during the night, including some that bees and butterflies didn't visit during the day.

这是授粉过程早期的一个重要环节。科学家发现，在他们研究的飞蛾中，超过45%在夜间光顾了数十种不同植物，包括蜜蜂和蝴蝶白天并未光顾的植物。

And researchers say this adds to the importance of conserving the insects because like bee populations, moth populations are decreasing worldwide.

研究人员表示，这增加了保护飞蛾的重要性，因为和蜜蜂种群一样，全世界的蛾类种群数量也在不断减少。

Scientists say to address that, people should reduce the use of pesticides when possible and make sure that moths have a food source and an undisturbed place to live. Their research was published in the "Journal Biology Letters".

科学家表示，为了解决这个问题，人们应该尽可能减少杀虫剂的使用，确保飞蛾有食物来源和不受干扰的生活场所。这项研究发表在《生物学快报》期刊上。