Phytophagous and saprophagous hoverflies, blowflies and soldier flies occur worldwide and are diverse and important ecological groups in both natural ecosystems and agricultural environments, as pollinators of plants and as decomposers of organic waste. The phytophagous fly maggots (larvae) develop in living plants while saprophagous maggots utilize a wide range of decaying organic materials (like animal manure or vegetal wastes). Ecological data is available for some European groups of flies due to existing longer research history, while the characteristics of the South African fly fauna remain less explored.
The issues addressed in the FlyHigh project are concerned with filling the gap in ecological and evolutionary knowledge on focal phytophagous and saprophagous South African flies and their host plants (specific bulbous plants such as lilies or aloe succulent plants), and to test if this data could be utilized in artificial rearing protocols of the new industrial-productive sector of flies and other insects.
The FlyHigh project also explores ways to improve controlled rearing protocols for fly mass rearing. The potential benefits being beneficial endproducts for agriculture or ecological farming, including flies being used as bio-agents, providing effective pollination services in natural of greenhouse environments and larvae as effective biodecomposers or organic waste.
The FlyHigh project explored ways to improve controlled rearing protocols for fly mass rearing including optimal ranges for different rearing parameters of e.g. temperature, humidity, diet and density for the Black Soldier Fly and other species also used in artificial rearing like the House Fly (Musca domestica) and the Green Bottle Fly (Lucilia sericata). New larval feeding media were developed and the performance of different strains of flies on these substrates was evaluated. The gained societal importance stems from the enhanced artificial rearing protocols increased maggot activity and produced flies more effectively and sustainably. Despite sharing some COI haplotypes, two industrial level domesticated strains of the BSF showed a significant phenotypic plasticity according to the biological parameters analysed.
The overall objectives of the FlyHigh project is to obtain useful ecological and evolutionary data to be used for research for understanding interrelationships of phytophagous flies and geophyte plants, and, to obtain ecological data to be used for applied research for the increased knowledge on features of ecological processes and also for improving mass rearing protocols. The obtained taxonomic and ecological data was collected for phytophagous hoverfly species distributed in Mediterranean ecosystems of South Africa and Europe, and for some hoverfly species new host plants such as specific bulb plants (e.g. lilies) or aloe succulent plants were recorded. FlyHigh researchers systematically screened selected molecular markers and evaluated the genetic diversity and evolutionary patterns of the flies and their host plants, and these results were published in several scientific publications.
