Native flies potential pollinators, varroa mite reduces honey bee numbers, native flies act like bees

When varroa mite hit, University of New England PhD candidate Abbey Davis said she had been investigating how native flies could mimic the role of European honey bees.

With the mite infiltrating Northern NSW producing regions, she said farmers "became more and more interested in these fly pollinators."

"It's a really unfortunate circumstance, but at the same time I'm really glad I did this research before varroa mite has had the chance to spread everywhere in Australia," she said.

Ms Davis said she's already identified a number of species that show promise because of the characteristics they share with the bees.

"We already know of some specific species that are quite good pollinators," she said.

"They're the ones that tend to mimic honey bees. They look like them, they're as large as them.

"And they have a lot of hairs on their bodies so when they visit flowers they tend to trap pollen accidently and then transfer it around."

And, under some conditions, the bee mimicking flies can even do a better job than the bees themselves, according to Ms Davis.

"In Australia the climate is so warm, and honey bees, while they like warm conditions, they can't really handle Australian summers as well as the natives can," she said.

"Honey bees they really do prefer those 'perfect days' you could say."

The golden drone fly, which Ms Davis said has the most promise at the moment, also visits a wide range of flowers, making it an even more effective pollinator.

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"It's really fast at flying and it also crisscrosses around between flowers, which is great for cross pollination," she said.

"And we have records of it flying in 40 degrees, which honey bees will not fly in."

But it's also a question of population.

Ms Davis said of the European honey bees "it's not that they're bad pollinators ... we just don't have enough of them."

And in the coming years she said it will become even more critical to have the extra pollinators, with demand for production increasing alongside our population.

"There's so many people in the world and agricultural intensification is increasing, honey bees don't seem to be able to keep up with this," she said.

Ms Davis said they now need to find out how they can support the flies in commercially viable numbers.

"The thing that needs work is seeing if they can be reared in really large numbers," she said.

Something that is already being trialled.

"There are a couple of places in NSW now that sell flies commercially for pollination services," she said.

And apparently the flies don't ask for much either when it comes to supporting them with food, and places to reproduce.

"The main thing we're focusing on is decaying plant material," she said.

"It's easy to find in many agro ecosystems."

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