Our new study has been published in Basic and Applied Ecology. It takes a fresh look at a long-standing question in cacao research: which insects actually pollinate the flowers?
Cacao flowers are visited by many small insects, and recent studies have listed a growing number of them as potential pollinators. But visiting a flower is not the same as pollinating it. In cacao plantations in Malaysia and French Guiana, we watched what flower visitors actually do on the flower, checked whether they carry cacao pollen, and identified them using DNA barcoding.
The results point clearly to biting midges of the family Ceratopogonidae, especially the genus Forcipomyia. They behave in ways that fit pollination and carry cacao pollen. Gall midges, which are often seen on the flowers, were almost always inactive and carried no pollen. We also propose a simple decision framework to help other researchers tell real pollinators apart from casual flower visitors.
The study was carried out in collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. It received international attention, including coverage in The Economist and an interview on BBC World Service; see our Media page.
Read the paper: Van de Sande, E., Vroman, S., Kratz, F., Mohamed, N. Z., Salim, J. M., Vandromme, M., & Vanschoenwinkel, B. (2026). Revisiting cacao pollination: new behavioural and pollen-based evidence for the key role of Ceratopogonidae. Basic and Applied Ecology, 94, 24–33.
