Relationships around Syrphidae

Many kinds of associations can be found around Syrphidae. One might think of the obvious relationships like Syrphids eat and get eaten. A Syrphid fly however eats nectar and pollen but not on all flowers. Some plants are even specialized in and dependent on Syrphids. Looking in more detail there are many many more associations to be found. There are parasitoids specialized in Syrphid larvae and pupae. The imago stage (the fly) is actually just one part of their livecycle but gets the most attention in leterature. Syrphid larvae live for instance in a wide range of ecosystems, (micro)habitats and eventually niches, sometimes even for years. Most Syrphidae larvae can be roughly divided into three main groups; phytophagous (living plants), saprophagous (decaying organic matter) and predacious (aphids, coccids and psyllids) but there are many more. Syrphids provide pollination, biological control and plant geneflow services.

This page will show the current knowledge and will (later) link to a more detailed page that specialist can edit. This page was initially started with the predatory Syrphidae database from Rojo et al (2003). The idea is to extend this database the coming years to all kinds of relationships connected with Syrphidae to get a better understanding of the whole livecycle.

Contact Bastiaan Wakkie for questions, fixing errors or additions to this database.

Main source used so far: Rojo, S. et. al. (2003). A world review of predatory hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae: Syrphinae) and their prey. Cibio ediciones.