Hawkmoths use nectar sugar to reduce oxidative damage from flight

Abstract

Sugar rush Flying requires high levels of energy production, which causes muscular oxidative damage. Food-derived antioxidants can protect against such damage; however, nectar is devoid of these compounds. Levin et al. found that nectar-feeding hawkmoths fed high concentrations of sugar had lower levels of damage than unfed moths. Sugar-fed moths generated antioxidant compounds by shunting glucose through a pentose phosphate pathway. This mechanism may have allowed for the evolution of energy-intensive flying nectarivores. Science , this issue p. 733