by Under the rocky bottom of Morocco, researchers have discovered a surprising intruder that unnoticed in termite colonies.
Few outsiders receive acceptance in Termite Society, but a types of BlowFly has developed an incredible multipart mut which is successfully fooling termites, so that his larvae can not only survive but apparently thrive.
According to a new study, this is not strongly documented in these flies. The authors say that they were lucky that they discovered the flight larvae that colonies inhabited in the Anti-Atlas Mountains of southern Morocco, where indigenous harvest periods (Anacanthotermes Ochraceus) Build underground nests.
Evolutionary biologist Roger Vila of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain and his team studying butterflies and ants, and because few butterflies were active that day due to recent rains, they searched for ants.
“When we lifted a stone, we found a Termietheuvel with three flight larvae that we had never seen before,” says Vila. “The water had probably flooded the deeper layers of the nest and the larvae were founded on the surface.”
Intriged, the researchers came back three times. They lifted hundreds of stones, but found only two more of the larvae, which were together in a Termietheuvel.
This suggests that the kind is rare, says Vila. Phylogenomic analysis indicates that the flow flies are among the gender Rhyncomya, Although more research is needed to investigate its abundance, along with other details about biology and ecology.
What we know so far is already amazing.
Termites use their antennas to beat and smell everyone who comes in, so that they can quickly identify problems. Specialized soldier termites have huge lower jaws for such an occasion.
But with such an enviable safety, climate control and food security, it can be tempting for other insects to try to infiltrate their colonies, despite the risk.
For some of their disguise, the BlowFly larvae show a “termite mask” on their back. This consists of a fake head decorated with antennas and palpes comparable to that of an eye -stermite.
The fake head also contains fake eyes, which seem remarkable to the eyes of the Harvester Termite eyes. In reality, Vila notes, these are breathing from gaps.
“Most termites live a few meters deep and have no visual perception,” says Vila. “Harvester -termites, however, end up in the twilight to collect grass, so that they have functional eyes that can imitate the larvae with their spiracles.”
In addition to the fake termite head, the bodies of larvae are covered with strange ‘tentacles’. These are creepy imitations of termite antennas, as the researchers demonstrated with scanning electron microscopy.
Unlike the fake head, these tentacles can be functional. They actually seem to use the flies for communicating with termites.
And because the larvae have so much of these protrusions, they can communicate with different termites at the same time.
These are both impressive adjustments, but still not enough in itself.
Every term colony has its own scent, shared by all members, and nobody comes in without. If you look like a termite, it doesn’t help if you don’t smell good – intruders of other colonies are not welcome and soldiers can be fallen apart.
But these flight larvae are professionals. They not only imitate the smell of a colony; According to Vila, they adjust it perfectly.
“We quantified the chemical composition of these larvae and the result is surprising: they are indistinguishable from the termites in the colony where they live; they smell exactly the same,” he says.
In the wild, the flight larvae had been in the food rooms of their hosts when Vila and his colleagues found them. The researchers brought something back to a hill of laboratory termite, where the larvae were attracted to more populated areas.
Termites were very attentive, flowed around the flight larvae and gutters. They also seemed to feed them.
“The larvae are not only tolerated, but they constantly communicate with the termites through contact with their antenna-like tentacles,” says Vila. “They even seem to feed the termites, although this has not yet been unambiguously demonstrated.”
Some humpback flies (Phoridae) also imitate termites, but they do it as adults, not as larvae. They are also not closely related to these Flowflies, which suggests that the lists have evolved independently.
“The common ancestor of blowflies and humpback flies dates more than 150 million years, much further than what people separate from mice. We are therefore convinced that we have discovered a new case of social integration evolution,” says Vila.
No other known species in the gender Rhyncomya show a similar appearance or lifestyle, pointing to relatively rapid evolution.
“This discovery invites us to reconsider the boundaries and potential of symbiotic relationships and social parasitism in nature,” says Vila.
“But above all we have to realize how much we still don’t know about the enormous diversity and specialization of insects, which are essential organisms in ecosystems.”
The study was published in Current biology.
