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. 2017 Jun 19;27(12):R578-R580.
doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.073.

Phoresy

Affiliations

Phoresy

P Signe White et al. Curr Biol. .

Abstract

White et al. introduce the phenomenon of phoresy - animals hitching a ride on other animals.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Examples of phoresy
Top left: SEM of the mite Macrocheles muscaedomesticae attached to the fly Drosophila hydei (photo by Heather Proctor). Top right: The wasp Trichogramma evanescens on the eye of a large cabbage white butterfly, Pieris brassicae (photo by Nina E. Fatouros). Bottom left: A recently emerged blowfly, Calliphora vicina, covered in Poecilochirus austroasiaticus mites. Typically, the mites are phoretic on carrion beetles, thus showing a potential loss of host-specificity (photo by M. Alejandra Perotti). Bottom right: A male solitary bee, Habropoda pallida, with phoretic beetle larvae (Meloe franciscanus). The mass of larvae looks like a female bee and latches onto the male bee as it attempts to mate with the mass (photo by Leslie S. Saul-Gershenz, published with permission from Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2006), 103, 14039–14044).

References

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