International Journal of
Biodiversity and Conservation

  • Abbreviation: Int. J. Biodivers. Conserv.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-243X
  • DOI: 10.5897/IJBC
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 679

Short Communication

Flying with the enemy: An endoparasitic fly larva in Brazilian bumblebees

Mateus Marcondes, Fernando Antonio Cologneze Gomes Pinheiro, Sérgio Rodrigues Morbiolo, Daiane Almeida de Camargo, Vinícius Cardoso Cláudio, Guilherme Sampaio and Fábio Camargo Abdalla*
Laboratory of Structural Biology and Functional, Federal University of São Carlos, Campus Sorocaba. Rodovia João Leme dos Santos, km 110, SP 264, Bairro Itinga, CP 3031, CEP 18052-780, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 09 July 2011
  •  Published: 31 August 2011

Abstract

 

In the south of Brazil some species of bumblebees are disappearing, such as: Bombus bellicosus in Paraná State. Insecticides and other pesticides and global warming are possible candidates for such phenomena, but none of them has been deeply studied. In forest fragments at southeast of Brazil (Sorocaba City, São Paulo State) tachinid fly larvae were found inside the abdomen of foraging females of Bombus morio and Bombus atratus. It is the first time that the occurrence of such parasitism is described for these species and it could be of some relationship to the disappearance of the genus Bombus.

 

Key words: Bumblebee, Bombus atratusBombus morio, parasitism, tachinidae.