Ocorrência de Megaselia scalaris (Loew, 1866) (Diptera, Phoridae) em ninhos de laboratório de Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus, 1758) e Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Abstract

Megaselia scalaris (Loew, 1866) is a cosmopolite specie and a detriturer insect, commanding to act as a facultative predator. There are little reports about the invasion of nests in social Hymenoptera by this phorid. Nests of Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus, 1758) and of Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802), kept in the Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais (UNESP, Rio Claro), were invaded by M. scalaris. Immature from
this Diptera were found in a deposit of food of M. pharaonis, commanding, with this, to compete by food and to prejudice the development of the colony. In the case of P. longicornis, apparently there was not damages, because the immature and adults of the phorid sheltered in the deposit of trash. M. scalaris did not caused any prejudice for the immature and
adults of both species of ants. This fact can by related with the internal dynamic of the colonies, what hinder any harmful action of the Diptera. This is the first report of this phorid specie in nests of home ants in the Brazil.