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Date: | Thu, 4 May 2000 15:56:14 -0400 |
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recall reading somewhere about small hive beetles laying eggs on
honey bees, and now this!
see http://www.nature.com/nature/ for full story:
04 May 2000
Nature 405, 35 - 36 (2000) © Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
Beetle larvae cooperate to mimic bees
JOHN HAFERNIK AND LESLIE SAUL-GERSHENZ
The life cycles of parasites often involve complex behavioural and
morphological adaptations in order to find a host. Here we report a
remarkable mode of host-finding by the blister beetle Meloe franciscanus, in
which young larvae aggregate together on vegetation to mimic the appearance
of a female bee, luring male bees to land on them and collect the
aggregation as a unit for transmitting to females during real matings.
Although cooperative behaviour is common among highly social insects,
particularly bees, to our knowledge it has not been reported before in
blister beetles, nor has it been associated with mimicry.
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Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2000 Registered No. 785998 England.
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