Dr Brad Howlett, of Plant and Food Research, said the while other insects carried less pollen than honey bees, they tended to visit flowers more frequently, which balanced out the equation.
"The non-bee insects are also seen to be more adaptable to changes in environment and landscape than bees, so are even more important as pollinators in some situations where land use is changing," he said.
"It's vital that when we consider pollination services for our commercial crops we don't forget about these other insects as effective pollinators."
University of Queensland plant ecologist Dr Margie Mayfield told Phys.org that scientists hadn't yet broadly explored the role of non-bee insects in crop pollination.
"The global reliance on honeybees for pollination is a risky strategy given the threats to the health of managed honeybee populations due to pests and diseases such as Varroa mites and colony collapse disorder," she said.
"Non-bee insects are an insurance against bee population declines. We are trying to get the message out there to use scientific findings such as these to promote a change in agricultural practices."
Researchers have meanwhile been trying to pin down what has been driving unexplained bee colony losses, something only anecdotal evidence has blamed on diseases, pests, pesticides and starvation.
This year, Kiwi scientists joined a new project between Australia's national science agency CSIRO and tech giant Intel, fitting tens of thousands of bees across the globe with tiny electronic tags that would provide new clues around what is driving the losses.