Hoverflies may lack the pollen baskets that make bees look purpose-built for the job, but new from Queen’s University Belfast shows their behaviour can make them highly effective pollinators.
recorded marmalade hoverflies making single visits to strawberry flowers, then measured the resulting fruit and fertilised seeds. The linked what the insects did during each visit with how successfully the flower was pollinated.
The findings matter beyond strawberries. Hoverflies also visit crops such as apples and a wide range of wildflowers, so understanding their contribution can improve knowledge of food security and ecosystem . It also adds another reason to protect diverse pollinator populations rather than focusing on a single headline species.