The two-winged insects (flies, gnats, mosquitos) is a very large group. Many of them specifically visit flowers, such as the Syrphid flies or flower flies. They are not as hairy as bees and as efficient in carrying pollen, but some are good pollinators.

Fly Flowers

The flowers that are pollinated by flies are typically:

• Pale and dull to dark brown or purple
• Sometimes flecked with translucent patches
• Putrid order, like rotting meat , carrion, dung, humus, sap and blood
• Nectar guides not present
• Produce pollen
• Flowers are funnel like or complex traps

Blow fly or green bottle fly. Photo by Beatriz Moisset, 2002-2004.

Tachinid fly on catnip. Photo by Beatriz Moisset 2002-2004.

Did you know that mosquitoes are pollinators? Mosquitoes are known pollinators of bog orchids, Habenaria obtusata. Photo by Beatriz Moisset.

Hairy-legged fly (Trichopoda pennipes). Photo by Beatriz Moisset.

The syrphid fly is a bee mimic. Photo by Beatriz Moisset 2002-2004.

The tachnid fly is similar in general appearance to bees or wasps. Photo by Beatriz Moisset 2002-2004.

A bee fly, a good bee mimic. It lays eggs near bee nests and its larvae feed on bee larvae. Photo by Beatriz Moisset.

Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers have a fungus-like smell that attracts many tiny insects, particularly fungus gnats. Photo by Steve Baskauf.

The meat-colored petals and fetid aroma of pawpaw (Asimina triloba) attract flies and beetles. Photo by Steve Baskauf.

Skunk cabbage's strong smell and dark color attract carrion flies that lay their eggs thinking that it is rotting flesh. Photo by Beatriz Moisset.

Red Trillium is a beautiful flower with a less than beautiful odor. Many wildflower enthusiasts claim that this flowering beauty smell like rotting flesh. Although humans may not find this smell attractive, flies are drawn to these brilliant red blooms.

The deep red color and putrid odor resemble decaying meat and attract flies who feed on pollen of these flowers. Typically, no nectar is produced in fly-pollinated flowers. This carrion-scented flower is also known as “Stinking-Benjamin” or birthroot.

Red trillium (Trillium erectum). Photo by Thomas G. Barnes, USDA PLANTS Database.

Dogbane is a common pink flowered shrubby herb that flowers in July and August. Dogbane flowers are designed to attract butterflies. When these long-tongued pollinators visit the flowers of dogbane, their tongues become coated with a pollen and cement like mixture from the flower. Flies and weaker insects are not so lucky. These lightweight pollinators often become glued to the flower and die a slow death from starvation.

Dogbane. Photo by Brother Alfred Brousseau.

What does a midge have to do with chocolate? More than you think. Chocolate comes from cocoa trees. that grow in the tropics. These trees look quite different from most other plants. Instead of having flowers in the most conspicuous places, they have them on the trunk and lowest branches. These flowers are small and white and face down, the reason for all this is that they attract tiny flies, known as midges rather than bees or other better-known pollinators. The midges are ordinarily attracted to fungus; cocoa flowers smell somewhat mushroomy too. In essence, for the cocoa tree to bear fruit, first it has to be pollinated by midges.

Think about it next time that you eat a bite of that marvelous thing known as chocolate. Visit Beatriz Moisset's "The Web of Life" blog…

Photo by Beatriz Moisset.