ArticleScientific reports2021
Electric field detection as floral cue in hoverfly pollination.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Electrosensitivity in planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoromorpha).Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Electrostatics facilitate midair host attachment in parasitic jumping nematodes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Weak anthropogenic electric fields affect honeybee foraging.iScience · 2025Article
- The use of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to monitor airborne particulate matter and assess health effects on pollinators.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2025Review
- Electric transportation and electroreception in hummingbird flower mites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Through an animal's eye: the implications of diverse sensory systems in scientific experimentation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Electrostatic pollination by butterflies and moths.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Prey can detect predators via electroreception in air.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- An analysis of time-varying dynamics in electrically sensitive arthropod hairs to understand real-world electrical sensing.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
- Static electricity passively attracts ticks onto hosts.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Passive electrolocation in terrestrial arthropods: Theoretical modelling of location detection.Journal of theoretical biology · 2023Article
- Synthetic fertilizers alter floral biophysical cues and bumblebee foraging behavior.PNAS nexus · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pollinators can detect the color, shape, scent, and even temperature of the flowers they want to visit. Here, we present the previously unappreciated capacity of hoverflies (Eristalis tenax and Cheilosia albipila) to detect the electric field surrounding flowers. Using hoverflies as key dipteran pollinators, we explored the electrical interactions between flies and flowers-how a hoverfly acquired a charge and how their electrical sensing ability for target flowers contributed to nectar identification and pollination. This study revealed that rapid variations in a floral electric field were related to a nectar reward and increased the likelihood of the fly's return visits. We found that thoracic hairs played a role in the polarity of hoverfly charge, revealing their electro-mechanosensory capability, as in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). Electrophysiological analysis of the hoverfly's antennae did not reveal neural sensitivity to the electric field, which favors the mechanosensory hairs as putative electroreceptive organs in both species of hoverflies.
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