Sarah ArnoldApr 22, 2025

A brief #Introduction or actually, re-introduction post.

I'm Sarah. I'm an entomologist. I work at Niab in the UK, studying insects important in fruit crop production. This includes #Pollinators like bees and hoverflies, as well as natural enemies of pests, and the pests themselves.

Most of my work is on UK crops like #Apples and #Strawberries but I also have an area of work on entomology in #Cocoa (there are a lot of parallels with orchards really!).

I'm always happy to infodump enthusiastically about #SolitaryBees, #Forcipomyia, #Cacao cultivation, #Strawberry varieties, and also about hamsters.

Show threadSarah ArnoldDec 17, 2022

Cocoa is especially #pollinated by #Ceratopogonidae midges, particularly the genus #Forcipomyia. However...lots of other insects of similar size may play a role. This could include thrips, gall midges, fruit flies, etc. Gall midges are particularly common on cocoa plantations.

But Forcipomyia respond to the odour of #cocoa flowers, and have hairy bodies that cocoa pollen clings to, so they can carry more grains than many other flower visitors. So it's likely that they're most efficient.