Non-Bee Insects Are Equally Important For Global Crop Pollination

But now, a team of global researchers, including Trinity College Dublin’s (TCD) Jane Stout who co-authored the paper, says that while bees are the best pollinators, many crops around the world don’t use bees at all and are reliant on other insects to do their pollination. The research found that total pollination services provided – based on visitation frequency and pollen deposition per visit – was the same for honey bees and non-bee insects (38%), with around a quarter of services (23%) provided by other bees.

While the risks facing bee populations are well known, ranging from climate change to colony collapse disorder to increased use of neonicotinoid pesticides on farms throughout the world, many other insects that play just as big of a role face the same threats.

An global team led by Dr Romina Rader of the University of New England set out to determine, for the first time, how non-bee insects contribute to pollination of crops. The survey compiled almost 40 studies on those insects, which altogether covered five continents and 1,739 field plant crops, according to United Press International.

University of Queensland plant ecologist Dr Margie Mayfield told Phys.org that scientists hadn’t yet broadly explored the role of non-bee insects in crop pollination. Though the insects are not as efficient at pollinating as bees are, they make up for it with extra visits.

Scientists from New Zealand’s Plant and Food Research assisted researchers from 18 countries in analysing honey bee, other bee and non-bee insect visits to 480 fields of 17 different crop types on five continents.

In the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers found that non-bee pollinators like flies, wasps, butterflies and beetles can provide insurance against declines in bee population. “We also found that non-bee pollinators were less sensitive to habitat fragmentation than bees”.

“These two factors compensated for each other, resulting in pollination services similar to bees”. Instead of using pesticides that are only safe for bees, farmers should pesticides that are safe for other insects such as flies and ants.

“Non-bee insects provide a valuable service and provide potential insurance against bee population declines”, they added.