Tuesday, October 26, 2010

ROBERT SCHNECK: The ant which ain't

Apart from hoverflies, the Diptera are not my favorite insects. Nevertheless, I think I love Vestigipoda longiseta.

"Most of what you see in the lower of the two photoes above are larvae of army ants of the genus Aenictus. The odd one out is the whiter 'larva' in the centre, which is not a larva at all, but a fully adult female of the phorid fly Vestigipoda longiseta! (The upper photo shows the same animal in close-up.) This bizarre animal makes its living by imitating its host larvae and being fed by the larvae's deluded carers. Five species of Vestigipoda have been described to date from Malaysia (Disney et al., 1998; Murayama et al., 2008)."

For more, visit Christopher Taylor's blog "Catalogue of Organisms"
http://coo.fieldofscience.com/2010/09/freak-of-week-wingless-legless-flies.html

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