Impact of mulches on floral visitors in day-neutral strawberries and contribution of syrphid flies to strawberry pollination

Animal-mediated pollination is essential for the production of many specialty crops with insects, primarily bees, serving as the predominant pollinators in many agroecosystems. However, increasing management problems with honey bees and declines in native bee populations due to various environmental stressors have highlighted the importance of promoting wild bees and other insect pollinators to ensure sustainable pollination services. This study explores the impact of various mulches on the abundance and richness of floral visitations by insects and the role of syrphid flies in a day-neutral strawberry system. Four different types of mulches were evaluated at the University of Wisconsin West Madison Agricultural Research Station in Wisconsin, USA, during the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, and included three polyethylene mulches of different color (black, white on black, and reflective metallic) and one brown soil-biodegradable paper mulch. Observations of pollinator floral visitations w..., Floral Visitor Observations
To assess pollinator visitation, observations were conducted between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm on days with no or partial cloud cover, and sustained wind speeds below 24 kmph. Observations were done every other week from July 13 to October 5 in 2022 and weekly from July 27 to October 5 in 2023.
In each row, up to five flower clusters were observed for 10 min and any flower visitors were recorded, with the order of rows observed randomized on each sampling date. The total number of flowers observed was recorded as the number of open flowers varied across clusters. A flower visitor was defined as any insect which appeared to be interacting with flowers, or which landed on open flowers. Insects visiting were identified to species when possible, including all honey bees and bumble bees. If a species was not identifiable due to short visit duration, small size, or complex identification traits (such as syrphid flies), they were recorded into one of the following visuall..., , # Impact of Mulches on Floral Visitors in Day-Neutral Strawberries and Contribution of Syrphid Flies to Strawberry Pollination

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw76h](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw76h)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data is presented with two files. A file on syrphid observations and pollen collection from syrphid flies sampled and the number of pollen grains that belong to the target crop, strawberry.

Another file reports on the floral observations made on strawberry flowers of all floral visitors.

### Files and variables

#### File: Syrphid\_pollen.xlsx

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* Common names: syrphid species/morphogroups used in the manuscript
* Letter: Letter is an indicator group for date of collection,
* Date: date of observation in mm/dd/year format
* Block (1-4) indexes the replication level of the observation, with a total of four blocks.
* Row (M, P, W, B) represents the mulch treatments where the level represents th...,