Brown Brian V, Vendetti Jann E
Urban Nature Research Center, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, United States of America Urban Nature Research Center, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Los Angeles United States of America.
Biodivers Data J. 2020 Mar 26;8:e50943. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.8.e50943. eCollection 2020.
Phorid flies are amongst the most biologically diverse and species-rich groups of insects. Ways of life range from parasitism, herbivory, fungivory, to scavenging. Although the lifestyles of most species are unknown, many are parasitoids, especially of social insects. Some species of ant-parasitoids are attracted to injured hosts for feeding purposes to develop eggs, as well as for oviposition, requiring each female to find two injured hosts.
Females of the phorid fly Hartop et al. (Diptera: Phoridae) were found to be quickly attracted to crushed glass snails of the species (Beck) (Gastropoda: Oxychilidae). Most females were without mature eggs and apparently were attracted for feeding purposes only; other injured molluscs offered at the same time were not attractive. One female laid eggs in captivity and offspring were reared to the pupal stage. The lifestyle of this species is similar to that of parasitoids of injured ants, which also require separate hosts of the same species for feeding and oviposition. We conclude that injured hosts must be common in the environment to attract these host-specific scavengers.
蚤蝇是昆虫中生物多样性最高、物种最丰富的类群之一。其生活方式多样，包括寄生、食草、食菌和 scavenging（此处scavenging未给出准确中文释义，推测是“食腐”之类意思，按原文翻译）。尽管大多数物种的生活方式尚不清楚，但许多是寄生性昆虫，尤其是社会性昆虫的寄生者。一些寄生于蚂蚁的物种会被受伤的宿主吸引，以便进食来发育卵以及产卵，这要求每只雌蝇找到两只受伤的宿主。
发现蚤蝇Hartop et al.（双翅目：蚤蝇科）的雌蝇会迅速被碾碎的（贝克）玻璃蜗牛（腹足纲：嗜黏液蛞蝓科）吸引。大多数雌蝇没有成熟的卵，显然只是被吸引来进食；同时提供的其他受伤软体动物并不具有吸引力。一只雌蝇在圈养环境中产卵，后代被饲养至蛹期。该物种的生活方式与寄生于受伤蚂蚁的寄生者相似，后者也需要同一物种的不同宿主来进食和产卵。我们得出结论，受伤的宿主在环境中必定很常见，才能吸引这些宿主特异性的 scavengers（推测“食腐者”之类）。
