Last week at the nursery growers IPM workshops, we heard from speakers who covered topics related to biological controls in nursery crops and how to ID and promote natural enemies to help with insect pest issues.

With that at the top of everyone’s mind, I wanted to highlight some work from a local PhD candidate at the University of Guelph and the fantastic Syrphid (also commonly known as flower fly or hover fly) ID resource she has put together. The ID sheets are linked at the end of this blog post and available to download.

Alice Dabrowski is a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Young and Dr. Popp in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph. Her research focuses on the immature stages of flower flies (Diptera, Syrphidae).

While the adults are charismatic and well-known pollinators, many of the predacious larvae remain understudied. The taxonomic component of her work will document and describe larval flower flies found throughout Northeastern North America, contributing to identification resources and ecology data.

The Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management (IPPM) component will examine the feeding rates of candidate flower fly larvae on green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) for the development of novel biological control agents. Both the taxonomic work and IPPM results aim to support a better understanding of these important pollinators and promote sustainable agriculture in Canada.

The ID sheets are below and can be downloaded. If you have any questions about these resources or Alice’s research, she can be reached by email at dabrowsa@uoguelph.ca