New research from the National Botanic Garden of Wales, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, has created a league table of the favourite flowers of bees and hoverflies, giving a window into their secret lives. The plants visited by individual insects were identified by analysing fragments of DNA contained within the pollen grains on their bodies, a process known as DNA metabarcoding. This information provided a detailed understanding of the preferences of insects, including key differences in foraging between bees and hoverflies. In this study, bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, and hoverflies were often found to visit the same plants, however, key differences were seen between the plants used most abundantly by bees and hoverflies. Dandelion, buttercups, and lesser celandine were the favourites in the spring. In the summer, bramble was popular with both bees and hoverflies but bees particularly like knapweeds, thistles, and cat’s ear whilst hoverflies favour angelica and hogweed. In the autumn, Rudbeckia, Helenium, Bidens and Coreopsis came out on top. This work highlighted the importance of native plants within pollinator’s diets. However, the news for gardeners and growers is good: keep doing what you’re doing because garden plants are a vital food source, particularly during the later months when native plants have finished flowering. Results showed that 39% of pollen DNA collected from insects in autumn came from horticultural plants, in comparison to 3% in spring and 6% in summer. |