Understanding and encouraging dance flies as natural enemies of field crop pests

There are 175 species of dance flies (Family: Hybotidae) in the UK, of which four are important for biocontrol.

Dance flies are small (1–6 mm) and their shapes vary from slender to robustly built. They have a humped thorax and are very similar to, but smaller than, the Empididae (balloon and dagger flies).

A dance fly completes one or two generations per year.

Adults mostly predate small insects, such as aphids and midges, in cereals and oilseed rape. The larvae are predatory and live in the soil, dead wood or organic detritus. Four species are considered important for biocontrol.

Dance flies are often highly abundant along field boundaries and within fields.

Techniques to encourage dance flies include:

• Providing field margins with a variety of flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants
• Avoiding cutting margins in summer
• Preventing pesticide drift into margins