title: Rediscovery and reclassification of the dipteran taxon Nothomicrodon Wheeler, an exclusive endoparasitoid of gyne ant larvae.
abstract: The myrmecophile larva of the dipteran taxon Nothomicrodon Wheeler is rediscovered, almost a century after its original description and unique report. The systematic position of this dipteran has remained enigmatic due to the absence of reared imagos to confirm indentity. We also failed to rear imagos, but we scrutinized entire nests of the Brazilian arboreal dolichoderine ant Azteca chartifex which, combined with morphological and molecular studies, enabled us to establish beyond doubt that Nothomicrodon belongs to the Phoridae (Insecta: Diptera), not the Syrphidae where it was first placed, and that the species we studied is an endoparasitoid of the larvae of A. chartifex, exclusively attacking sexual female (gyne) larvae. Northomicrodon parasitism can exert high fitness costs to a host colony. Our discovery adds one more case to the growing number of phorid taxa known to parasitize ant larvae and suggests that many others remain to be discovered. Our findings and literature review confirm that the Phoridae is the only taxon known that parasitizes both adults and the immature stages of different castes of ants, thus threatening ants on all fronts.
authors.affiliation: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Av. Centenario Km 5.5, Chetumal 77014, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pérez-Lachaud
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco UNIVASF, Colegiado de Ciências Biológicas, Campus Ciências Agrárias - Rodovia BR 407, 12 Lote 543 Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil.|Seção de Entomologia, Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira, Centro de Pesquisa do Cacau (CEPLAC, CEPEC), Cx.P.7, 45600-970, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Benoit J B
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Jahyny
authors.affiliation: Finnish Museum of Natural History, Entomology Dept., P.O. Box 17, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Gunilla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ståhls
authors.affiliation: National Museums Scotland, West Granton Road, Edinburgh, EH5 1JA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rotheray
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio CEPLAC/UESC, Cocoa Research Center (CEPEC), 45600-000, Itabuna, Bahia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jacques H C
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Delabie
authors.affiliation: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Av. Centenario Km 5.5, Chetumal 77014, Quintana Roo, Mexico.|Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Intégrative, Université de Toulouse UPS, CNRS-UMR 5169, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 09, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Lachaud
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000469:parasitology*; D001938:Brazil; D004175:Diptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva / Q000469:parasitology*; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000502:physiology; D014197:Trees / Q000502:physiology