Two New Rare Ant Fly Species Discovered in India

Recently, researchers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu discovered two new species of extremely rare ant flies from India - one from a disturbed urban forest in Delhi and the other from the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu.

  • The two newly identified species are Metadon ghorpadei and Metadon reemeri, belonging to the subfamily Microdontinae (Syrphidae).
  • Microdontinae flies exhibit myrmecophily, a specialised behaviour where larvae live inside ant nests and feed on ant brood, making them extremely rare and difficult to detect.
  • Prior to this discovery, only six species of the genus Metadon were known from India. Globally, out of 454 ....
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Ecology & Environment