Which moths might be pollinators? Approaches in the search for the flower‐visiting needles in the Lepidopteran haystack

1. The natural history of pollination has been studied for centuries and is well documented for diurnal insect species, such as bees and butterflies, but less so for moths. There are notable cases of pollination systems among moths, but given their enormous diversity and primarily nocturnal habits, the role of moths as flower visitors is poorly understood. One potential issue with studying moth‐pollination systems is determining which approach to use in order to acquire data and reveal pollination patterns and dynamics. Based on reports from the literature and the authors' own research, this paper outlines eight approaches that can be employed to search for patterns of flower visitation by moths. 2. The outlined approaches include searching the internet and online databases, sampling ecosystems, monitoring specific flowers, using artificial baits and floral scent lures, using moth phylogeny, proboscis morphology, and DNA and environmental DNA metabarcoding, which are supplemented with a brief description of the techniques and examples for each approach. 3. Each approach has the potential to increase researchers' knowledge of associations between moths and the flowers that they visit, but their relative strengths and limitations are dependent on scope, efficacy of application, technical expertise, and level of effort. 4. Each of these approaches, alone or in combination, are likely to be useful in the search for novel information on the natural history of flower visitation by moths and other potential pollinators. Recent reviews of moth pollination have highlighted the importance of moths as plant mutualists, yet the number of demonstrated pollinating moths is relatively small given their enormous diversity. Feeding behaviors for most moths are unknown, and determining which species are likely flower visitors is overwhelming. This paper outlines eight systematic approaches for searching for flower‐visiting moths. Each approach has the potential to identify novel plant–pollinator interactions.