The natural world is full of tricks. African dwarfs can imitate the flies to deceive the real insects to try to mate with them and deposit precious pollen. Some spiders can wander like ants to avoid trouble. Now, an international team of scientists noticed a successful blow fly in camouflage between termites – wearing “termites masks”. Detailed results in a The study was published on February 10 in the magazine Current biology.
Discover an opportunity
A team of scientists has discovered a kind of fly of strikes (Calliphoridae), whose brightness can infiltrate into termital colonies in the anti -slobus mountains in South Morocco. The research collection of the Evolutionary Biology Institute (IBE) at the Spanish National Research Council is mainly studies ants and butterflies. Since the area was a little dry and lacking rain, butterflies were not flying. The team decided to look around some ants instead and it was a surprise.
“When we lifted a stone, we found termites with three flying larvae that we have never seen before. Perhaps the water flooded the deeper layers of the nest and the larvae appeared on the surface.” He said in a statement. “It should be a very rare type, because we made three other missions in this field, and despite the lifting of hundreds of stones, we only found other flies, together, in termites hill.”
Put on “termital mask”
The team gave a closer look at the bodies of ants to find out the types of unique modifications for this type of beating fly. Calliphorid fly larvae use this convincing that helps them sneak into termites hills. Larvae The “termite mask” show on the appearance of their bodies. The mask includes a non -functional head decorated with Antenna and Palps– The accessories near the termites of termites – which are the same size as termites, the large harvest. They also have two false eyes. These fake muddon are breathing holes in the larvae.
Villa said: “Most termites live several meters deep and have no visual vision.” “However, the termite of harvesting comes out in dusk to collect the grass, so they have functional eyes that the larvae are able to imitate with Spiracles.”
The larvae also use unusual “claws” about their bodies that are diluted by detailed termites. The team used the electronic microscope to consider claws and saw that they are Help the larvae communicate with many termites at the same time.
[ Related: Even ants may hold grudges. ]
Spray on chemical camouflage
Everything inside the nest of termites is dark, so white termites use their antennas to get to know each other. The antennas can detect the shape and smell of their brothers, since then All nest members share a specific smell. If the termites inhale the soldiers infiltrated from other colonies, they will attack and cut the interlocutors.
To keep the detection of detection – it is possible to cut it – Bowflies mimics the distinctive smell of their hosts. Team analysis revealed that The chemical composition of the larvae cannot be distinguished from termites in the colony. This chemical disguise is the key to interacting with termites and taking advantage of the life of the infectious nest. Future studies can determine how to create this unique smell.
Make termites share food
When the team initially found the larvae in Morocco, they were in Terminal dining rooms. When they noticed the larvae again in a laboratory prepared, they saw that they tend to settle in the most populated area of the nest. Here, they have already received constant attention from termites. While the team was unable to determine what the larvae eat, they noticed that the white termites seemed to transfer food to the larvae using their mouths.
Villa said: “Not only is the larvae to be tolerated, but it is constantly communicating with the termites by contacting its antenna claws.” “The termites seem to feed them, although this has not yet shown unambiguously.”
One of the biggest challenges in the study was difficult to keep insects in the laboratory. It involves preserving the desert termite colonies, who live in it Very special circumstances in the wilderness.
“The larvae that we studied in the end died without turning, so there may be elements of the nest and the symbiotic relationship between the termites and the flies that we could not transfer to the laboratory. Villa said their diet is currently unknown, and their adult shape remains a mystery.
[ Related: Flies with shorter eye-stalks act aggressively because females are less attracted to them. ]
Rapidly
According to the teamIt seems that the relationship between the larvae fly and termites is a form of social intrusion or coexistence. Limited white flies and termites You have a similar relationship. However, it is an adult humper flies and not larvae that mimic the termites.
The genetic study also showed that the fly belongs to sex Rhyncomya. There are no known types of this sex that have an unusual lifestyle or physical features, so the team believes that this new type should have evolved very quickly.
“This discovery calls on us to reconsider the limits and capabilities of social and parasitic relations in nature,” said Villa. “But, above all, we must realize how we do not know it about the vast diversity and the specialization of insects, which are essential organisms in ecosystems.”