Colleagues:
I am beginning a project on the phorid fly genus Melaloncha, the
species of which are parasitoids of adult stingless bees, bumble bees and
honey bees in the New World tropics. My interest is in the systematics of
the flies, describing the many unknown species, studying their phylogenetic
relationships and hopefully learning something about their host-parasitoid
relationships. Allow me to give you a little background:
The genus Melaloncha is found almost exclusively in south
and central America (one species makes its way to southern Texas)
and is known from 32 described species. In Costa Rica alone,
however, I have identified 54 species, most of which are of
course undescribed. As far as we know, these flies are
parasitoids, laying their eggs in adult stingless bees, bumble
bees and honey bees. Obviously, the honey bees are not natural
hosts, but some species of Melaloncha are so far known only to
attack them. Probably other native bees are attacked (euglossines?)
but I have no evidence yet. We have host information for about 10 species in
total, so much remains to be learned. There is some evidence that
the flies can be injurious to bee colonies and might be problems
for apiculture.
I need many more specimens of these flies to conduct my
studies. General insect collecting techniques, including Malaise
traps, are relatively inefficient to collect specimens of
Melaloncha. Instead, there are three major ways to catch them:
1) Watch the nests of hosts. Some species of Melaloncha will
perch near the nest entrance and dart at potential hosts, trying
to lay eggs in them.
2) Watch the flowers where bees congregate. I did this at Las
Cruces this summer and collected 7 species of Melaloncha
attacking 4 species of bees.
3) Collect the sick, injured looking bees that are on the ground
near the nest entrance, or inside the colony, that are too weak
to fly. These are often parasitized; William Ramirez found that
about half of the honey bees with these symptoms had Melaloncha
larvae in them.
Obviously, these three methods are superior to general
collecting because they link the parasitoids with their hosts.
My plan is to submit a grant proposal to the National
Science Foundation to study these flies. I will describe all the
species, and produce a user-friendly guide to their
identification (possibly just for Costa Rica, as there are
insufficient numbers of specimens from other parts of the
Neotropical Region), look at their phylogenetic relationships and
hopefully be able to learn about host-parasitoid co-evolution.
What I need is access to colonies of stingless bees, and honey
bees, where I can make my collections and do my rearing studies.
It would be great to also train others to make collections for
me, so that we could learn about seasonality in the various
species. My trips to tropical forests have given me spotty
results in collecting Melaloncha because one must rely upon blind
luck in coming across colonies; therefore, I am interested in
contacting those who have captive colonies.
Anyone with an interest in this project, or who needs phorids
from bee nests identified, is welcome to contact me. Thanks in advance,
Brian
________________________________________
Brian V. Brown
Entomology Section
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, U.S.A.
tel: (213) 763-3363 fax: (213) 746-2999
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.lam.mus.ca.us/lacmnh/departments/research/entomology
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