Dipteran Associates

The Diptera, or true flies, are a large group with an estimated 1,000,000 species (Mayhew, 2007), of which an estimated 16,000 species in 21 families are parasitoids (Eggleton & Belshaw, 1992; Feener Jr & Brown, 1997). Parasitoidism as a life cycle evolved over 100 times in the Diptera, from ancestors that were mostly saprophagous (Eggleton & Belshaw, 1992; Feener Jr & Brown, 1997).

Quevillon & Hughes (2018) report 492 records of Diptera from six families, the Chloropidae, Ephydridae, Phoridae, Tachinidae, Helosciomyzidae and Syrphidae, as parasites and parasitoids of ants. The Phoridae are parasitoids of adult ants and very occasionally ant brood. The Tachinidae and Helosciomyzidae are typically parasites and parasitoids of other insects, but few records have been found of them infecting ants. The Syrphidae have long been known as predators living inside ant nests, and only recently have they been recorded as true primary parasites of ants.

Chloropidae
Gonzalez et al. (2016) found that Pseudogaurax paratolmos, a fly in the family Chloropidae, parasitizes larvae of Apterostigma dentigerum. Larval flies are solitary ectoparasitoids, each of which attaches to a single ant larva and develops from larva to pupa in 2 wk, consuming nearly the entire host, and then ecloses as an adult 1 wk later. Overall parasitism prevalence was 6.8% of 203 nests, and flies were active during both the dry and rainy seasons. Intensity of parasitism ranged from 18.2 to 100% of larvae attacked per parasitized nest. No other species of Apterostigma that nested in the same localities were parasitized by the flies, including Apterostigma pilosum (n = 93 nests) and Apterostigma auriculatum (n = 10 nests). All immature ants, parasitized or not, as well as immature stages of Pseudogaurax paratolmos, were attended by adult ants that exhibited normal brood care behavior, including covering immatures with mycelia, grooming, and maintaining brood in the fungus garden.

Phoridae
See Phorid Flies for further details.