Visitors Now:
Total Visits:
Total Stories:
Profile image
By Alton Parrish (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

Tiny Headhunters Roaming The U.S.

Monday, July 2, 2012 19:14
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

The smallest fly ever discovered is just 0.40 millimeters in length, and is a member of a fly family that is known for 'decapitating' ants

This is a reconstruction of the tiny phorid fly Euryplatea nanaknihali, with body size compared with a house fly (Musca domestica).

 

Credit: © Inna-Marie Strazhnik 


A new species of phorid fly from Thailand is the smallest fly ever discovered. At just 0.40 millimeters in length, it is 15 times smaller than a house fly and five times smaller than a fruit fly.

The tiny fly, Euryplatea nanaknihali, is also the first of its genus to be discovered in Asia, and it belongs to a fly family (Phoridae) that is known for "decapitating" ants.

Some species in the Phoridae fly family lay eggs in the bodies of ants, and the resulting larvae feed in the ants' heads, eventually causing decapitation. In fact, some of these phorid flies are being used to try to control fire ants in the southern United Sates.

The new fly species is described in the July issue of Annals of the Entomological Society of America in an article called "Small Size No Protection for Acrobat Ants: World's Smallest Fly Is a Parasitic Phorid (Diptera: Phoridae)" (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1603/AN12011).

According to the author, Dr. Brian Brown of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, these flies can probably decapitate some of the smallest ants in the world, ones with heads as small as 0.5 millimeters. Although this has not yet been observed, it is highly likely because the fly's only known relative, Euryplatea eidmanni, is known to parasitize ants in Equatorial Guinea.

"It had always been assumed that smaller species of ants would be free from attack because it would be physically impossible for flies that are 1-3 millimeters in length to develop in their relatively tiny heads," he said. "However, here we show that even the smallest host ants in a host-parasitoid system cannot escape parasitism."

 
Contacts and sources: 

Dr. Brian Brown
Entomological Society of America


Read more at Nano Patents and Innovations



Source:

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Total 2 comments
  • Would it be possible to genetically engineer these flies to be large enough to decapitate the leaders of the NWO?

  • Thats a pretty good idea, lets call them drones!

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.