Abstract
Thirty-two flowers of Aristolochia littoralis Parodi collected in Gainesville, FL, between 29 August and 29 September 1992 contained 349 phorid flies representing seven species of the genus Megaselia: M. scalaris (Loew), M. aurea (Aldrich), M. perdita (Malloch), and four unidentified species. Experimental evidence suggests that flies are attracted to flowers by an olfactory cue, although visual cues might be used at short range. Ninety-six percent of the flies (334) were males. The reason for this male-biased sex ratio is unknown, but it is possible that the attractive olfactory cue produced by the plant is sex-specific. At least some specimens of each Megaselia species carried clumps of pollen, suggesting that they were of an appropriate size to carry out pollination. Germination tests were conducted on seeds from 10 A. littoralis fruits. The mean germination rate for seeds from the 10 fruits was 56% (range, 4–92%).
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