Flies and Beetles

Two years ago, collaborators from Brigham Young University, Drs. Val Anderson, Robert Johnson and Shawn Clark, proposed a joint project with the college. The project looked at whether insects from intact cloud forest provide any benefits to farmers, like pest-eating insects, or pollinators. Oscar Claros answered the question of pollinators from the bee family and their relation between forest and crop areas last month with his project.

Today, Eddy Alarcón answered the question of whether the forest served as a home for some crop pest-eating insects, carabid beetles and syrphid flies. And the answer was... sometimes.


Photo: Eddy sets a Malaise trap for flying insects

Carabid beetles of the same species, terrestrial for the most part, were generally not found in both crop areas and forest. Although they do eat a large variety of prey, they are probably more specialized in terms of where they complete their life cycle.

Syrphid flies, on the other hand, are generally much more mobile, and their search for prey covers a larger area, with species that move between forest to crop areas.


Photo: A syrphid fly from the study area.

Eddy also discovered that the insecticides used for squash production at one of the sites, San Juan de la Miel, had a major impact on the composition of syrphid fly population.

All present spoke of the high quality of this student's work, and it showed in his defence grade: 96%, distinguished with honors. This is a first this year, and we are very proud of this young man.

This project received much support from our friends at BYU, from the Benson Agriculture and Food Institute, and the Bootcamp (recently funded by a generous anonymous donor -- thank you!). As usual, our new graduate was made possible by a team of dedicated people working together. And we are grateful for that.