title: The forgotten flies: the importance of non-syrphid Diptera as pollinators.
abstract: Bees, hoverflies and butterflies are taxa frequently studied as pollinators in agricultural and conservation contexts. Although there are many records of non-syrphid Diptera visiting flowers, they are generally not regarded as important pollinators. We use data from 30 pollen-transport networks and 71 pollinator-visitation networks to compare the importance of various flower-visiting taxa as pollen-vectors. We specifically compare non-syrphid Diptera and Syrphidae to determine whether neglect of the former in the literature is justified. We found no significant difference in pollen-loads between the syrphid and non-syrphid Diptera. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the level of specialization between the two groups in the pollen-transport networks, though the Syrphidae had significantly greater visitation evenness. Flower visitation data from 33 farms showed that non-syrphid Diptera made up the majority of the flower-visiting Diptera in the agricultural studies (on average 82% abundance and 73% species richness), and we estimate that non-syrphid Diptera carry 84% of total pollen carried by farmland Diptera. As important pollinators, such as bees, have suffered serious declines, it would be prudent to improve our understanding of the role of non-syrphid Diptera as pollinators.
authors: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK katy.orford@bristol.ac.uk.
authors: Katherine A
authors: KA
authors: Orford
authors: Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK.
authors: Ian P
authors: IP
authors: Vaughan
authors: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
authors: Jane
authors: J
authors: Memmott
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D004175:Diptera / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D054817:Pollination; D011156:Population Density
keywords: Syrphidae; non-syrphid Diptera; pollen-loads; pollen-transport networks; pollinators