Dietary requirements of seaweed flies (Coelopa frigida) |
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| Institution: | 1. Auburn University, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, 301 Funchess Hall, Auburn, AL 36849, USA;2. ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France;3. Yale University, Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, 266 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA;4. Université Rennes 1, UMR IGEPP, Campus Beaulieu, Bat 25-4, 35042 Rennes, France;5. Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, Institut de Biologie Paris Seine, Evolution Paris Seine (IBPS, EPS), 7–9 Quai St-Bernard, 75005 Paris, France;6. CNRS - University of Lyon, Laboratoire de Biométrie and Biologie Evolutive, 16 Rue Raphael Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne, France;1. Instituto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira, Divisão de Biotecnologia Marinha, Rua Kioto 253, 28930–000 Arraial do Cabo, RJ, Brazil;2. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional, Laboratório de Geologia Costeira, Sedimentologia & Meio Ambiente, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, 20940–040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil;3. Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Aobayama, Sendai 980–8578, Japan;4. Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, via Saragat 1, I–44122 Ferrara, Italy |
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| Abstract: | The seaweed fly, Coelopa frigida (Fabricius), is mostly found in piles of decomposing seaweed deposited on the seashore which form its only breeding sites. It is shown that C. frigida can complete its life cycle in a wide variety of marine algae, and that the larvae are unable to survive without some, as yet unidentified, consituent of seaweed. The larvae also have a requirement for a microbial gut flora which probably derives from the bacterial flora naturally associated with algae growing in the sea. After deposition of the seaweed on the shore, the bacterial population increases enormously, and is ingested by the feeding Coelopa larvae. The dietary requirement for bacteria can be satisfied by a variety of pure bacterial cultures of marine origin, and also by pure cultures of Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is suggested that the microbial cells are being used by the larvae as their principal source of energy. The bacterial populations naturally found on stranded seaweed are grazed by the feeding larvae. It is the combined activities of microbial and insect populations that result in rapid decomposition of the seaweed. The ecological relationships between marine algae, the microbial flora, and dipteran larvae are discussed. |
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