Euryplatea nanaknihali
Euryplatea nanaknihali, females in Dorsalsicht
Euryplatea nanaknihali is a fly species of the family of scuttle flies ( Phoridae ). The animals are about 0.4 mm long, making them the smallest known Fly. Their way of life is unexplored, but presumably they are parasitoids of ants eidmanni as the related Euryplatea. Euryplatea nanaknihali is characterized by a compact, rounded body, short wings, and small eyes. The known distribution is restricted to Thailand, where the species was found in 2008 in the National Park Kaeng Krachan. It was described in 2012 by Brian V. Brown.
Features
Euryplatea nanaknihali is about 0.4 mm long and has a limuloide body shape, that is, head and abdomen are compact and similar rounded as the sign of horseshoe crabs. The body of the species is sparsely covered with bristles and light brown in color. The eyes of a fly are very small relative to the rest of the body. Ocelli and end bristles missing among the antennas of the kind, it has two by four cheeks bristles. The first Flagellomer is long and pointed, the sensor bristles are feathered, short and long. The palp corresponds to the basic blueprint of the humpbacked flies and is covered with long, thick bristles. The mouthparts are well developed with large, wide Labella. The pronotum has no long bristles, an scutellum does not have the kind. The legs are short and sparsely covered with long, sturdy bristles. The rear femur is enlarged and very wide. The Hintertibia has a number of dense palisade arranged like bristles. The Tarsomere are in E. nanaknihali short and rounded, their 0.23 mm long wings are of a greyish color. The Costa loader is extremely long with the 0.9 -fold the wing length. The radial veins are largely fused. The wing veins R2 3 absent the type as well as thin veins. The halteres reach a third of the blade length. The abdominal tergites are available in full, the Abdominalsternit missing. E. nanaknihali has an acute, typical of parasitoids ovipositor.
Dissemination
Euryplatea nanaknihali is so far known only from Thailand, where it was discovered in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Looking at the distribution of the genus Euryplatea which is remarkable, since the only other known species, E. eidmanni, only occurs on Bioko before Equatorial Guinea African Atlantic coast.
Way of life
Most likely parasitized Euryplatea nanaknihali as well as many other ants scuttle flies by in whose head she lays eggs, which later drops by the enzyme production of the larvae. Since the closest related species, E. eidmanni, exclusively Crematogaster impressa attacks, it is likely that E. nanaknihali species of the genus Crematogaster parasitized. However, in Thailand are no members of this genus, which would in size or geographically in question. Only in the near Vietnam comes with C. rogenhoferi before in a way that would be 2 mm small enough to serve as host of the fly.
System
Euryplatea nanaknihali is next to E. eidmanni the only member of the genus Euryplatea. The holotype, a female imago, was discovered in 2008 and first described in 2012 by Brian V. Brown. With the epithet honored Brown Nanak Nihal Weiss, " a young entomology enthusiasts from Los Angeles ," in the hope that the enthusiasm to fire on.