Skip to main content

Migratory hoverflies 'key' as many insects decline

Migratory hoverflies are "key" to pollination and controlling crop pests amid the decline of many other insect species, new research shows.
University of Exeter scientists studied the movements of migratory hoverflies and were surprised to find up to four billion migrate to and from Britain each year.
The study shows these numbers have been relatively stable over the last decade, and such abundance means migratory hoverflies pollinate many billions of flowers and produce larvae that eat up to ten trillion aphids.
Recent research has suggested more than 40% of insect species worldwide are "threatened with extinction," creating a major threat to "ecosystem services" (benefits to humans from the natural environment, such as pollination of crops).
"The number of migrating hoverflies coming and going over Britain was much higher than we had expected," said Dr Karl Wotton, Royal Society research fellow at the University of Exeter.
"They are widely considered to be the second most important pollinators, after bees.
"They are especially important pollinators of wildflowers, soft fruits and brassica crops, and their larvae prey on various species of aphids -- which are the key crop pest in Europe.
"This dual role makes them uniquely beneficial to humans."
Migrating hoverflies arrive in Britain in spring and, with a month-long life cycle, those that leave are descendants of the spring arrivals.
"We are net exporters of hoverflies," said Dr Jason Chapman, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
"Each female can lay up to 400 eggs and, though many die as eggs or larvae, the departing population in autumn is larger than that arriving in spring.
"As well as their vital pollinating and aphid-eating roles, migrating hoverflies provide food for a range of predators including birds."
The study, supported by colleagues at Nanjing Agricultural University, Rothamsted Research, the University of Greenwich and the Max Planck Institute, used radar data on insects flying between 150m and 1km above the ground.
The hoverflies wait for favourable winds before migrating between Britain and mainland Europe.
Dr Chapman added: "Migrating insects are generally bucking the trend of decline that we're seeing with many other insects.
"Their mobility is probably a key part of this, as it allows them to move on to find the best habitats.
"Hoverflies are also generalists -- the adults feed on many kinds of pollen and the larvae eat many aphid species.
"Considering that many beneficial insects are seriously declining, our results demonstrate that migrant hoverflies are key to maintaining essential ecosystem services."
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Exeter. 
Note: Content may be edited.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Size matters: New data reveals cell size sparks genome awakening in embryos

Transitions are a hallmark of life. When dormant plants flower in the spring or when a young adult strikes out on their own, there is a shift in control. Similarly, there is a transition during early development when an embryo undergoes biochemical changes, switching from being controlled by maternal molecules to being governed by its own genome. For the first time, a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found in an embryo that activation of its genome does not happen all at once, instead it follows a specific pattern controlled primarily by the various sizes of its cells. The researchers published their results this week as the cover story in  Developmental Cell . In an early embryo undergoing cell division, maternally loaded RNA and proteins regulate the cell cycle. The genomes of the zygote -- a term for the fertilized egg -- are initially in sleep mode. However, at a point in the early life of the embryo, these zygotic nuclei "wake...
Post a Comment
Read more

Home births as safe as hospital births: International study suggests

A large international study led by McMaster University shows that low risk pregnant women who intend to give birth at home have no increased chance of the baby's perinatal or neonatal death compared to other low risk women who intend to give birth in a hospital. The results have been published by  The Lancet 's  EClinicalMedicine  journal. "More women in well-resourced countries are choosing birth at home, but concerns have persisted about their safety," said Eileen Hutton, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at McMaster, founding director of the McMaster Midwifery Research Centre and first author of the paper. "This research clearly demonstrates the risk is no different when the birth is intended to be at home or in hospital." The study examined the safety of place of birth by reporting on the risk of death at the time of birth or within the first four weeks, and found no clinically important or statistically different risk between home...
Post a Comment
Read more

Molecular adlayer produced by dissolving water-insoluble nanographene in water

Molecular adlayer produced by dissolving water-insoluble nanographene in water : "Nanographene incorporated micelle capsules" can be prepared by simply pulverizing and mixing nanographene with amphiphilic V-shaped anthracene molecules in water at room temperature. Even though nanographene is insoluble in water and organic solvents, Kumamoto University (KU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) researchers have found a way to dissolve it in water. Using "molecular containers" that encapsulate water-insoluble molecules, the researchers developed a formation procedure for a nanographene adlayer, a layer that chemically interacts with the underlying substance, by just mixing the molecular containers and nanographene together in water. The method is expected to be useful for the fabrication and analysis of next-generation functional nanomaterials. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in sheet form. It is lighter than metal wit...
Post a Comment
Read more