EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Pollinator Fly

Fly, Order Diptera
Cucumber Gulch Preserve, Breckenridge, Colorado USA

Explanation:  Quick, think of an insect that you would see on flowers, serving as a key pollinator!  What comes to mind is likely a bee, or a butterfly.  But realize that pollination can be done by a wide variety of other insects, invertebrates, and even some vertebrate species as well.  

And most people probably wouldn't even think of ... flies.  Fly pollination is very real.  In fact, some studies suggest that flies are a most important pollinator, after bees!  

I observed a group of flies (I have not identified the species)
serving pollination duty on some wildflowers
in Cucumber Gulch Preserve in the Rocky Mountains
of central Colorado.

It is largely unknown the degree to which the pollination services of flies complement, overlap, or could even replace those of other pollinator groups such as bees.   But flies are indeed known to be primary pollinators of many plant species.  And as found in studies in Australia, flies are major pollinators of horticultural crops (Cook et al. 2020) of key economic importance.

"Unsung heroes" they are!

Information:
     Cook, D.F., S.C. Voss, J.T.D. Finch, R.C. Rader, J.M. Cook, and C.J. Spurr.  2020.  The role of flies as pollinators of horticultural crops: an Australian case study with worldwide relevance.  Insects 11(6):341.  doi: 10.3390/insects11060341