Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are done by pure chance. This is what happened to a team of the institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain, who was on a mission in southern Morocco in search of ants and, raising a stone, instead discovered a termite … in which some intruders lived and thrived.
These were larvae of a fly belonging to a species not yet defined, which they have developed a disguise such as to deceive the termites and allow them to live undisturbed in their nestalso scrouting the food. This new case of mimicry It is described in a study published on Current Biology.
Moscow or termite? The team that discovered the camouflage fly was working in the mountains of the Atlas Entle, in the south of Morocco: their expedition was looking for ants, but the case wanted to come across a termination hidden under a rock. Here, in addition to the “normal” inhabitants, the team observed three small ones Moscow larvaenever seen before and with an unmistakable aspect – or perhaps it is better confusable: a superficial look they resembled small termiteswith lots of eyes and fake antennas and very similar to those of their guests.
Brought to the laboratory, the larvae were also analyzed from a chemical point of view: the team discovered that “perfume” just like the termitesproducing a series of aromas that help them further get confused in the nest.
Unique in its kind. There is a reason if this fly, which belongs to the genre Rhyncomya But to no species already described, he “chosen” to get confused among the termites: The Termitai are protected environments, warm and rich in foodand for this reason they are also protected with life from the Termiti Soldier. The larvae of this fly, however, have developed a disguise that makes them indistinguishable from the termites, to the point that in addition to shelter and food they also receive constant attention and even grooming – As if they were true and non -intruded.
This fly is the only one of its kind to exploit this type of mimicry, and could therefore belong to a new species and never described before: To do this, however, you must first observe their entire life cycle, something that the Spanish team was unable to do because the larvae died before reaching adulthood.
