What is it all about? There’s a new superhero bug working to save the world, and this isn’t just a fantastic Hollywood script. This buzz is real!
The little known hiding place within sight like the superhero insect from Clark Kent is the hover fly. Washington State University scientists have followed this fly like detectives and learned that this fly is of great help to gardens and farms.
In recent years, the number of the major pollinators of everyone, the honey bee, has been declining for reasons that need not yet be fully understood. The hover fly caught the slack.
These black and yellow striped flies, also called hover flies, are also pollinators. An observational study in West Washington found that of more than 2,400 visits by pollinators to flowers on urban and rural farms, about a third of them were made by the hover fly.
Ray Olsson, a WSU postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study published on Food Webs, said, “We found that there were really a dramatic number of pollinators visiting flowers that were not bees. The majority of the non-bee pollinators were flies, and most of them were the hover flies, a group that commonly mimicked bees. “
The bee-like colors of the Syrphid flies help keep predators away that are afraid of being stung. And they are real flies. Like Boeing planes, they only have two winches as opposed to bees with four wings. Juvenile hover flies also eat pests such as aphids. As adults, they eat nectar and visit flowers, so they have the potential to carry pollen like bees, but with less intent than bees, who collect pollen to feed their young.
Olsson notes, “The bee populations are declining and we are trying to help them, but there is still room for all pollinators. There are many conservation and monitoring efforts for bees, but that doesn’t extend to some of the other pollinators. I think people will be surprised that there are a lot more different types of pollinator insects – all we really need to do is pay a little more attention to them. “
So, when you see the black and yellow striped hover flies visit your garden and work around your flowers and plants like honey bees, be proud to know that the hover flies are doing their part in pollination, truly a superhero save the world.
