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Conservation of hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) requires complementary resources at the landscape and local scales.

ABSTRACT: Accumulating evidence shows that landscape fragmentation drives the observed worldwide decline in populations of pollinators, particularly in species of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. However, Little is known about the effects of landscape fragmentation on hoverfly (Diptera, Syrphidae) communities. Hoverflies provide varied ecosystem services: larvae contribute to waste decomposition (saprophagous species) and pest control (aphidophagous species), and adults pollinate a wide range of flowers.To determine how the diversity and quantity of resources for larvae and adults affect hoverfly abundance and species richness at three spatial scales, we recorded insect visitors of five target plant species in Belgian heathlands, habitats that have decreased considerably due to human activities.Hoverflies represented the most abundant visitors on two plant species, and the second most abundant visitors (after bumblebees) on the other target plant species. A large proportion of hoverflies observed were aphidophagous species associated with coniferous and deciduous forests. Resources for the larvae and floral resources for the adults influenced interactions among hoverflies and plants, but acted at different scales: larval habitat availability (distance to larval habitat) was relevant at the landscape scale, whereas adult resource availability (floral density) was relevant at the plot scale.Hoverfly abundance and species richness decreased with distance to larval habitat but increased with floral density. Moreover, landscape structure and composition had different effects according to hoverfly ecological traits. Landscape composition influenced aphidophagous but not saprophagous hoverflies, in that their abundance and species richness decreased with distance to forests. Maintenance of the interactions between plants and their hoverfly visitors requires complementary resources at both landscape and local scales.

SUBMITTER: Moquet L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7165621 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Conservation of hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) requires complementary resources at the landscape and local scales.

Moquet Laura L Laurent Estelle E Bacchetta Rossana R Jacquemart Anne-Laure AL

Insect conservation and diversity 20170710 1

Accumulating evidence shows that landscape fragmentation drives the observed worldwide decline in populations of pollinators, particularly in species of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. However, Little is known about the effects of landscape fragmentation on hoverfly (Diptera, Syrphidae) communities. Hoverflies provide varied ecosystem services: larvae contribute to waste decomposition (saprophagous species) and pest control (aphidophagous species), and adults pollinate a wide range of flowers.To de ...[more]

PMID: 32336985

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Project description:Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are among the most important pollinators, although they attract less attention than bees. They are usually thought to be rather opportunistic flower visitors, although previous studied demonstrated that they show colour preferences and their nectar feeding is affected by morphological constraints related to flower morphology. Despite the growing appreciation of hoverflies and other non-bee insects as pollinators, there is a lack of community-wide studies of flower visitation by syrphids. The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of flower visitation patterns in a species rich community of syrphids in a Central European grassland and to evaluate how species traits shape the structure of the plant-hoverfly flower visitation network. We found that different species varied in the level of specialisation, and while some species visited a similar spectre of flowers, others partitioned resources more strongly. There was a consistent difference in both specialisation and flower preferences between three syrphid subfamilies. Eristalinae and Pipizinae were more specialised than Syrphinae. Trait-based analyses showed that relative flower visitation (i) increased with plant height, but most strongly in Eristalinae; (ii) increased with inflorescence size in small species from all three subfamilies, but was independent of inflorescence size in large species of Eristalinae and Syrphinae; and (iii) depended on flower colour, but in a subfamily-specific way. Eristalinae showed the strongest flower colour preferences for white flowers, Pipizinae visited mostly white and yellow flowers, while Syrphinae were less affected by flower colour. Exploration of the structure of the plant-hoverfly flower visitation network showed that the network was both modular and nested. We also found that there were almost no differences in specialisation and relative visitation frequency between males and females. Overall, we showed that flower visitation in syrphids was affected by phylogenetic relatedness, body size of syrphids and several plant traits.

Dataset Information

Conservation of hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) requires complementary resources at the landscape and local scales.

Publications

Conservation of hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) requires complementary resources at the landscape and local scales.

Similar Datasets

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