The addition of floral resources is a common intervention to support the adult life stages of key crop pollinators. Fly (Diptera) crop pollinators, however, typically do not require floral resources in their immature life stages and are likely not supported by this management intervention. Here, we deployed portable pools filled with habitat (decaying plant materials, soil, water) in seed carrot agroecosystems with the intention of providing reproduction sites for beneficial syrphid (tribe Eristalini) fly pollinators. Within 12 to 21 days after the pools were deployed, we found that the habitat pools supported the oviposition and larval development of two species of eristaline syrphid flies, Eristalis tenax (Linnaeus, 1758) and Eristalinus punctulatus (Macquart, 1847). Each habitat pool contained an average (±S.E.) of 547 ± 117 eristaline fly eggs and 50 ± 17 eristaline fly larvae. Additionally, we found significantly more eggs were laid on decaying plant stems and carrot roots compared to other locations within the pool habitat (e.g., on decaying carrot umbels, leaves, etc.). These results suggest that deploying habitat pools in agroecosystems can be a successful management intervention that rapidly facilitates fly pollinator reproduction. This method can be used to support future studies to determine if the addition of habitat resources on intensively cultivated farms increases flower visitation and crop pollination success by flies.

Almonds are one of the most economically valuable crops globally and require pollination by insects to optimise the production of high quality, marketable nuts. The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is an efficient pollinator of almond, and hives are often placed in almond orchards to provide pollination services.

While several studies have investigated pollen collection by honey bees, little is known about the usage of almond and other pollen sources by individual hives during almond bloom.

We observed the brown honeyeater, Lichmera indistincta, visiting blueberry orchards in eastern Australia. L. indistincta is considered to be a nectarivorous bird, feeding almost entirely on nectar. However, we report observations of this species as both a nectarivore and insectivore in blue-berry crops and as an insectivore in raspberry crops. Brown honeyeaters may be acting as biological control agents when feeding on leaf-roller caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in blueberry orchards and on brown blow-flies (Calliphora stygia) in raspberry orchards. Although most blueberry growing regions use managed honey bees as the main pollinator, more studies on the complex tritrophic interactions occurring in these crops are needed to better understand the costs and benefits of different farm management practices upon alternative pollinators.

Protecting, establishing and managing biodiverse semi-natural habitats is one strategy within the concept of ecological intensification of agriculture that supports insect pollinator abundance and diversity in agroecosystems. However, without accounting for species-level relationships between insects, crops and non-crop vegetation, diverse semi-natural habitats may not lead to improved crop pollination, and could create pest reservoirs. Possibly thousands of non-bee insect species contribute to global crop pollination, but research has largely focussed on bees. Thus, key information to best manage habitats that target wider crop pollinator diversity and abundance is lacking. We demonstrate the concept of designing mixed species native plantings (a type of semi-natural habitat) based on plant-insect interactions to increase abundance and diversity of non-bee and bee crop pollinators in an intensively managed agricultural landscape. We used existing refereed and grey literature to identify and anticipate interactions between pollinators, natural enemies and pests with native plants and crop species to design and establish plantings on three farms. We anticipated the designed plantings would support 21 pollinating species, 20 of which were verified in observational surveys 5 years post-establishment. While anticipated bee-plant species interactions were largely confirmed, actual networks of the non-bee pollinators, were larger and more complex than expected, indicating the plantings were particularly effective in supporting these interactions. Most immature life-stages of non-bee pollinators were not directly supported by plantings and separate strategies should consider larval requirements. Presenting the plant-pollinator networks to relevant industries has been a powerful tool for incentivising their support for designed habitats on farms.