Where Is My Food? Brazilian Flower Fly Steals Prey from Carnivorous Sundews in a Newly Discovered Plant-Animal Interaction

Abstract

A new interaction between insects and carnivorous plants is reported from Brazil. Larvae of the predatory flower fly Toxomerus basalis (Diptera: Syrphidae: Syrphinae) have been found scavenging on the sticky leaves of several carnivorous sundew species (Drosera, Droseraceae) in Minas Gerais and São Paulo states, SE Brazil. This syrphid apparently spends its whole larval stage feeding on prey trapped by Drosera leaves. The nature of this plant-animal relationship is discussed, as well as the Drosera species involved, and locations where T. basalis was observed. 180 years after the discovery of this flower fly species, its biology now has been revealed. This is (1) the first record of kleptoparasitism in the Syrphidae, (2) a new larval feeding mode for this family, and (3) the first report of a dipteran that shows a kleptoparasitic relationship with a carnivorous plant with adhesive flypaper traps. The first descriptions of the third instar larva and puparium of T. basalis based on Scanning Electron Microscope analysis are provided.

Species of Syrphidae (Insecta: Diptera) of the UCLA University Park, Lara State, Venezuela

“…Estudios como el aquí presentado pueden ayudar a un mejor conocimiento de la distribución local, regional y mundial de las especies de Syrphidae y al descubrimiento de nuevos y llamativos ciclos biológicos (Fleischmann et al 2016), que pueden ser de gran ayuda en el manejo de ecosistemas, control biológico de plagas o en los servicios de polinización en agrosistemas e invernaderos.…”

Predatory dipteran larva contributes to nutrient sequestration in a carnivorous pitcher plant

“…Such a hypothesis is contingent upon the assumption that predatory pitcher inquilines return a significant fraction of consumed nitrogen to pitchers through nitrogenous wastes. Such an assumption remains unproven, as neither Scharmann et al [6] nor Chua & Lim [7] demonstrated this in their studies on C. schmitzi and M. nepenthicola, respectively, while Fleischmann et al [8] argued that some inquilines never return this nitrogen to their carnivorous plant hosts. Clarke & Kitching [9] speculated that C. schmitzi excreta returned a fraction of consumed nitrogen to their N. bicalcarata hosts, but their results showed that C. schmitzi presence in pitchers resulted in net reductions in fluid ammonium concentrations.…”

Phylogenetic relationships of the bacchine flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) based on molecular characters, with a description of a new species of Melanostoma (Schiner, 1860)

“…Commonly known as flower flies or hoverflies, syrphids (Diptera: Syrphidae) are distributed worldwide, absent only in remote oceanic islands and Antarctica (Thompson & Rotheray, 1998). While adults feed on pollen and nectar, larvae have a large array of natural histories (Ureña & Hanson, 2010;Rotheray & Gilbert, 2011;Pérez-Lachaud et al, 2014;Fleischmann et al, 2016). Syrphid species have been used as bioindicators (Sommaggio, 1999;Tscharntke et al, 2005;Ricarte et al, 2011;Sommaggio & Burgio, 2014), and they contribute to very important ecosystem services, such as pollination, biological control of pests or decomposition of organic matter (Lardé, 1989;Schmidt et al, 2004;Bergh & Short, 2008;Bugg et al, 2008;Ssymank & Kearns, 2009;Morales & Wolff, 2010;Martínez-Falcón et al, 2012;Nelson et al, 2012;Inouye et al, 2015).…”