Organism
Parasitoid Fly
TL;DR
The parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea demonstrates how eavesdropping shapes signal evolution.
The parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea demonstrates how eavesdropping shapes signal evolution. These flies are attracted to male cricket calls - they deposit larvae on the cricket, which burrow in and consume it from inside. On Kauai, where the fly was introduced in 1991, cricket populations evolved 'flatwing' males within twenty generations - a mutation eliminating wing structures needed for calling. Acoustic signaling evolved, and then un-evolved, in two decades due to eavesdropper pressure.
Notable Traits of Parasitoid Fly
- attracted to cricket calls
- larval parasitism
- drove rapid evolution of silent cricket males