Megaselia Rondani (Diptera: Phoridae) larvae as a Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) parasitoid

Abstract

Detritivoria and parasitism are dietary habits already registered for the phorids of the genus Megaselia Rondani. The results of this study confirm the parasitic habit of Megaselia larvae. This is the first Pachylia ficus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) adult record as a host of Megaselia scalaris (Loew, 1866) and Megaselia sp. (Diptera: Phoridae).

Larvae of Megaselia Róndani, 1856 (Diptera: Phoridae) as parasitoid of Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) and its frugivory on avocado

“…After obtaining adults, they were identified as belonging to the I. caricae species based on Miranda (2019). The species M. scalaris had been known to parasitize other species of Sphingidae (Souza et al 2019), to assess whether they can parasitize I. caricae, on May 7, 2015, the immature stages (3 caterpillars and 2 pupae) and one adult of I. caricae were offered to M. scalaris adults obtained from the laboratory rearing kept at CIMP. Each stage was separately offered to the scuttle flies in a reared 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm voile fabric lined cage [1 cage with 20 M. scalaris adults (undetermined sex) per stage].…”