Lasia klettii: Foto pa avril Nobile, KA
Pou pifò pati mouch yo pa yon ensèk mwen jwenn tro eksite sou. Sepandan, Fanmi enigmatik Acroceridae yo se eksepsyon an. Mwen pral kòmanse pataje kèk jenera enteresan de tan zan tan – mòfoloji fanmi an se etonan divès. Pifò nan jou mwen yo pase nan mize a envantè koleksyon masiv nou an sou 16,000 Akòserid (aka ti-tèt mouch). Sa ka pa son tout twò enpresyonan lè ou konpare li ak lòt fanmi ki pi abondan (epi li pal an konparezon ak sou la 17,500,000 lòt espesimèn nou genyen nan mize a); men li sanble reprezante anpil moun, si se pa pi fò, nan tout espesimèn li te ye pou tout fanmi an. Pandan ke gen chans pou gwo asanblaj mouch sa yo nan lòt enstitisyon, Kalifòni Akademi Syans yo ka fasilman reklame dosye a depi lè li resevwa koleksyon Dr. Evert mwen. woule (ki detanzantan antre nan travay nan mize a).
Acrocerids yo tounen yon gwoup olye difisil pou etidye paske yo ra nan lanati, byoloji parazitoid yo, ak ki jan difisil yo ka trape sou zèl la. Gwo thorax yo chaje ak misk ki lanse vole nan lè a – donk si ou pa kenbe yo nan yon flè ou rete anvi wè yon pèlen Malaise. Ev te di m 'yon istwa nan aprann trape sa yo sou zèl la nan Costa Rica. Ou kanpe anba van nan yon kòlèg nan jaden an – le pli vit ke yon moun tande yon bagay zip pase, ou balanse sovaj espere pèlen vole a pa chans… li travay chak fwa nan yon ti tan. Mouch sa yo tou se sèlman endoparazit li te ye nan areye granmoun (ka gen yon dosye sou yon Tachinid…). Genus ki pi wo a, NeoLazya, se yon parazit nan tarantul Theraphosid (yon bagay tankou Aphonopelma). Kòm yon lav, mouch la ap monte nan pye yon arenyen epi li antre nan vant la, kote li answit etabli akote poumon liv la epi li fè yon ti twou pou l respire.. Lè sa a, li tann avèk pasyans pou arenyen an tou pre matirite. Avèk tarantul fi, vole a ta ka andòmi pou dè dekad. Evantyèlman yon bagay ki sanble ak fim Etranje a rive ak lav yo manje sou ògàn entèn yo nan arenyen an Lè sa a, parèt nan pupate.. Men, kalkile si wi ou non yon arenyen gen yon parazit se enposib san yon disseksyon – Se konsa, gwo koleksyon areye vivan yo dwe konsève pou jwenn dosye lame. Biyoloji parazitoid se jis tèlman fre.
Echantiyon ki anwo a (Lasia klettii yon nouvo, san non, espès) te kolekte nan 1977 pa Schlinger toupre vil Alamos, Meksik – sou flè ak modèl la imite chans, yon skarabe Chrysomelidae (moun skarabe, nenpòt lide ki depase fanmi?).
Very interesting! Out of curiosity, because you mention large collections of live spiders, has any researcher reached out to the hobby tarantula keepers in a quest for specimens? While I have never seen something as spectacular as the above emerge from a wild caught tarantula, I have heard from a few people who ended up with “strange” flies in the past…
Reaching out to them for actual tarantulas has lead to quite a few specimens for Brent Hendrixson on his revision of the genus Aphonopelma, at least for the USA native species. There also are frequently imports of various species brought in from Central and South America, which is not a practice I like or am comfortable with…but it might lead to at least a few specimens given the numbers involved. Just a thought.
I think the answer is somewhat. I’ve reached out on message boards and even recently gave a short talk to the SF Bay Area Tarantula Society. The problem comes down to peoples immediate response when they see a giant grub crawling out of their spider – they reach in and grab their prize specimen and in the process damage the larvae or pupae of the emerging fly. As it turns out these flies are pretty sensitive before pupating and while I’ve seen lots of maggot images, never seen a fly reared by a hobbyist. I think the biggest hurdle is that people only discover what they are after they have had a spider die – and chances are it’ll be years before another one of their wild caught immature spiders are parasitized!
That makes a lot of sense, I guess it didnt really occur to me that for most people having a parasite emerge from one of their captives is a bad thing…that sort of thing would make my day. 🙂
Especially if that spider cost you a few hundred dollars!!
I wonder if that fly sees very well. 🙂
First impression of the beetle is a species of Chrysolina (subfamily Chrysomelinae), but my knowledge of Neotropical chrysos is limited.
Thanks for the genus ballpark – I’ll have to dig through our collections here to see if I can’t narrow it down more.
Did you mean that these acrocerid flies are the only known dipteran endoparasites of adult spiders? There are certainly spider-parasitic nematodes, and mantidfly larvae can crawl into the book lungs of their spider hosts and feed on hemolymph while hitching a ride to the egg deposition site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantispidae
And here’s a cool post about a mantidfly larva on a spider, preserved in amber!
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/03/28/spider-boarding-insect-preserved-in-amber/
(Asire w, that one’s on the outside of the spider, but the post also has more info on other tactics.)
Thank you for pointing that out! You’re correct of course, when I was thinking “no other endoparasitoids” I totally neglected non-insects such as nematodes. I should have recalled how tricky it can be to control nematode infestations in captive bread spiders!
I also did not know that about mantidflies. Actually I should catch up on the literature, there may be other diptera or hymenoptera parasitoids more recently known. Very cool, thanks for the link.
Augh augh augh and here’s a picture of a huuuuuge nematode coming out of a spider! It’s even one of the behavior-modifying parasites — it induces its host to seek out water before dying, so the nematode can complete its life cycle. (Like the horsehair worm in crickets!)
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/spider.htm