Uncovering Hidden Relationships: Museum Data Reveal Novel Interactions for Neglected Insect Pollinators

ABSTRACT Comparisons of insect pollinator–plant interactions through time have identified shifts in community structure for bees and flies. However, trends for the majority of other insect pollinators remain understudied due to a lack of available data. Historical collections are uniquely positioned to fill this data gap due to their extensive holdings of diverse pollinating taxa. This study uses the Canterbury Museum's natural history collection in Christchurch, New Zealand, to investigate insect pollinator–plant interactions among five insect orders: Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera (excluding bees) and Diptera (excluding syrphid flies). By comparing field collection labels and metadata with data from the Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI) database, we identified that 86% of recorded interactions in the museum data for insects identified at the genus and species level were not previously identified in GloBI. This analysis underscores that valuable data, archived in historical collections highlights the importance of digitising and sharing not only specimen data, but also detailed metadata to enhance scientific understanding of insect pollinator–plant interactions.