Bees are disappearing - can pollinating flies pick up the slack?
Quirks & Quarks | Posted: June 16, 2017 9:25 PM | Last Updated: June 16, 2017
You ask the questions. We find the answers.
We know that bees — especially honeybees and bumblebees — are extremely important pollinators. But there are many other insect pollinators around, including flies.
Dr. Amro Zayed, York Research Chair in Genomics from the Department of Biology at York University, suggests that even though flies can pollinate, they are not equipped to be as efficient as bees.
With that in mind, flies could not fill that niche in the wake of declining bee populations. However, flies are the exclusive pollinators of cacao, which is where chocolate comes from.