Flies (Diptera: Muscidae: Calliphoridae) Are Efficient Pollinators of Allium ampeloprasum L. (Alliaceae) in Field Cages

Abstract

In conjunction with efforts to identify efficient insect pollinators for seed multiplication of cross-pollinated plant species stored and maintained by USDA-ARS Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS), experiments were conducted to assess and compare the efficiency of the house fly, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae), and Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Calliphoridae), and different densities of each fly species, to pollinate leek, Allium ampeloprasum L., plant inventory (PI) accessions in field cages for seed yield maximization and high germination. Cages with flowering plants were exposed to 0 flies or stocked with 100, 250, and 500 M. domestica or C. vicina pupae per week for 6 (2002) and 7 (2004) wk. Seed yield (weight per cage) increased linearly as fly densities (C. vicina or M. domestica) increased from 0 to 500 pupae per week, with 500 fly cages averaging 340.7 g (C. vicina) and 70.5 g (M. domestica) of seed in 2002 (PI 368343) and 615.3 g (PI 168977) and 357.5 g (PI 368343) in 2004 when only the C. vicina was used. For 0, 100, and 250 fly cages, seed yields averaged between 2.3 and 175.3 g in 2002 and 10.7 and 273.1 g in 2004. Mean 100-seed weights between treatments ranged narrowly between 0.4 and 0.5 g in 2002 and 0.3 and 0.4 g in 2004, and germination rates of seed lots from "fly cages" were mostly > or =80% in both years. The C. vicina is an efficient and cost-effective pollinator ($388.97 for pupae and shipping, compared with $2,400 for honey bee, Apis mellifera L. [Hymenoptera: Apidae], nuclei) for caged leek accessions, with 250 and 500 C. vicina pupae per week required to produce sufficient seed (130 g) to fill an accession storage bag in the WRPIS gene bank.

Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline

“…In all cases, we used the local currency and the exchange rate 20 of the years of the data collected to calculate the prices and production values in 2005 euros. 21 We calculated the dependence ratios D i based upon the five levels of the extensive complete set of direct and commodity crops used for human food, we selected the ones for 24 which we had production and price data. For the individual crops among the 11 commodities,neither the production nor the producer price was available and the crops that composed each 1 of these commodities were not all dependent on insect pollination at a similar level for their 2 production.…”

“…So the overall appropriate figure for E is likely to be in the neighborhood of -1. 21 Furthermore, a distinction must be made between short-term and long-term elasticities, the 22 latter being traditionally higher (|E| > 1). Since we consider a hypothetical situation of total 23 pollinator loss, long-term elasticities appear more appropriate.…”

“…None of the bioeconomic studies to date have evaluated the impact 18 of insect pollinators at the world scale, nor did they make a geographical analysis of the 19 impact of pollinators in terms of the possible vulnerability of agriculture or examined the 20 potential impact of pollinator loss on production compared with the consumption structure. 21 Our first objective was to quantify the economic loss that could result from the total 22 disappearance of insect pollinators on world agricultural output and we based our calculations 23 on the dependence ratios recently published for the crops used directly for human food (Klein 24 et al, 2007). Due to the many crop species and the heterogeneity of the structure of the 25 agricultural production, the vulnerability to pollinator decline is likely to vary widely among 1…”

Pollinating Flies (Diptera): A major contribution to plant diversity and agricultural production

“…Today Diptera are one of the three largest and most diverse animal groups in the world (Skevington and Dang 2002), comprised of over 160,000 named species in about 150 families (Evenhuis et al 2008). At least seventy-one families of Diptera contain flower-visiting flies, and flies are pollinators of, or at least regular visitors to, at least 555 flowering plant species (Larson et al 2001) and pollinators of more than 100 cultivated plants including such important crops as mango, cashew, tea, cacao, onions, strawberries' (Larson, Inouye and Kevan, unpubl;Heath 1982), cauliflower, mustard, carrots, apples (Mitra and Banerjee 2007), leek (Clement et al 2007) and cassava (Hansen 1983). Calliphorid flies are raised commercially for use as pollinators of crops including many of the above-mentioned plants, as well as canola, sunflower, buckwheat, garlic, lettuce and peppers, and to increase the production of greenhouse tomatoes and peppers (www.…”

Protective role of N-Acetyl L-Cysteine against reproductive toxicity due to interaction of lead and cadmium in male Wistar rats

“…It is an excellent scavenger of free radicals and has been also used as a chelator of heavy metals to protect against oxidative stress and prevent damage to cells. [1011] Therefore, the present study was undertaken to explore the toxicodynamic interaction of Pb with Cd and to evaluate the protective role of NAC in rats.…”