10.5061/DRYAD.41M4D
Orford, Katherine A.
University of Bristol
Vaughan, Ian P.
Cardiff University
Memmott, Jane
University of Bristol
Data from: The forgotten flies: the importance of non-syrphid Diptera as
pollinators
Dryad
dataset
2015
non-syrphid Diptera
pollen-loads
pollen-transport networks
pollinators
Syrphidae
Diptera
2015-03-03T16:32:33Z
2015-03-03T16:32:33Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2934
586741 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
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.
Visitation network and pollen transport data of the studies used in the
analysisPlant-pollinator visitation network data and pollen transport data
(including number of pollen grains found on the insects' bodies when
swabbed) of the studies used in the analysis. The tabs along the bottom
are for each of the 11 studies. Latin names are given. The habitat,
sampling design (transect or plot design) and location are given at the
top of each spreadsheet.DRYAD Orford et al..xlsx
UK
Australia