Estudio de moscas comunes (Díptera: Muscomorpha) como visitantes florales en cultivos de fresa, Sibaté-Cundinamarca

Abstract

Colombia occupies one of the first places in fruit crops, among which the strawberry crop stands out with an area of 13,779 hectares planted. This makes it a crop of great economic and social importance, being one of the main horticultural products in Cundinamarca and Boyacá. Despite its importance, there is little study on floral visitors and alternative pollinators to Hymenoptera in this crop. The Muscomorpha infraorder comprises a wide diversity of flies with predominantly saprophagous, necrophagous and coprophagous feeding habits, however, their consumption of various floral resources is little known and studied, becoming an important group as floral visitors and potential pollinators in strawberry crops. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of flies of the Muscomorpha infraorder as pollinators in strawberry crops (Fragaria x ananassa) using a descriptive and quantitative approach. Through the analysis of ecological networks and pollen transport, significant patterns of interaction between flies and plants were identified. Delia cf platura stood out as the species with the highest frequency of visits and percentage of transported strawberry pollen (61.3%), evidencing its possible key role as a pollinator in this crop. Network metrics, such as connectance (36.1%) and nestedness (NODF: 66.8), showed a well-organized and hierarchical structure, where generalist species contribute to the stability of the system. This work highlights the importance of flies as floral visitors and their contribution to the maintenance of ecosystem services within strawberry crops.