Paris (AFP) — When a mosquito tries to bite biology professor David Inouye during fieldwork among orchids in Colorado, he pauses before swatting the bug. If it’s dusted with pollen, he lets it live.

“I give those mosquitoes a pass to help the orchids,” Inouye says.

Mosquitoes are better known as bloodsuckers that spread malaria, dengue and other diseases, but at least some also play a little-known role as pollinators.

There are more than 3,500 types of mosquitoes buzzing around the world, but only around 100 bite humans.

Only the females are out for blood, targeting humans and animals for protein they require to produce eggs.

But both male and female mosquitoes need to feed on the sugar and nectar from plants and flowers.

Yet their role in flower reproduction is far less studied than that of bees or butterflies.

“Part of it might be that many mosquitoes are either nocturnal or active at dusk or at dawn,” Inouye, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland who is based in Colorado, told Agence France-Presse.

“So it’s a little less convenient to study them than it is to study bees that are flying in the middle of the day or butterflies that are only active when the weather is nice,” he said.