Abstract
In the Neotropics, numerous species of bromeliads are able to hold water in their central tubeor funnel-shaped tank of tightly overlapping leaves and their lateral leaf axils. These compartments filled with water (= phytotelmata) and decaying plant matter frequently house complex animal communities, ranging from protozoans to vertebrates (Picado, 1913; Frank, 1983). Invertebrates are omnipresent in bromeliad tanks and among insects, aquatic larvae of Diptera are especially species rich and numerous, being represented by at least 15 families (Frank, 1983; Greeney, 2001; Mestre et al., 2001). Within the horse flies (Tabanidae), records from bromeliads include the genus Stibasoma, with S. flaviventre Macquart and S. venenata Osten Sacken from arboreal and S. fulvohirtum (Wiedemann) from terrestrial bromeliads in Panama (Goodwin & Murdoch, 1974), as well as larvae and pupae of S. theotaenia (Wiedemann) from Aechmea sp. growing on the ground in northern Argentina (Coscaron et al, 1999). In the course of an ongoing study on the fauna associated with bromeliads in southern Brazil, larvae and pupae of another horse fly species, Fidena (Laphriomyia) rufopilosa, were detected. Here we report on their occurrence in phytotelmata and provide a description of the male pupa.
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