Estimated moth host capacity in urban conservation habitats

Maximizing the potential of urban greenspaces to support native pollinators is an important focus of conservation organizations tasked with creating and caring for these habitats. However, most urban conservation efforts are designed to support bees, rather than other insect pollinators such as moths. A remaining question is whether urban greenspaces designed for bees can also support moth communities. Hence, our objective was to measure the utility of urban greenspaces as habitat for moth larvae. Our study took place in Franklin County, Ohio and focused on urban grasslands managed as part of the Columbus Metroparks, which are a regional system of natural area parks, as well as pollinator habitats established by the Friends of the Olentangy Watershed (FLOW).   We conducted a vegetation survey at Metropark grasslands (n = 6 ),  FLOW pollinator habitats (n = 6) and mowed turf fields (n = 4) across Franklin County by identifying all plant species within six random plots along a transect. We used these plant records to conduct a literature review and estimate the potential moth larval diversity at each site. We found that Metropark grasslands and FLOW pollinator habitats could support significantly higher larval diversity compared to mowed turf fields, with a high potential for species overlap between moth communities found in Metropark grasslands and FLOW pollinator habitats. Additionally, the mowed turf fields could support a completely unique moth community. These results suggest that both Metropark grasslands and FLOW pollinator habitats are important resources for moth conservation as larval refuges in urban ecosystems.