The Flower and the Fly: Long Insect Mouthparts and Deep Floral Tubes
نویسنده
چکیده
The mega-nosed fly (Moegistorhynchus longirostris) of southern Africa, like its literary counterpart, Pinocchio, has a bizarre appearance that reveals an underlying truth. Its proboscis, which looks like a nose but is actually the longest mouthpart of any known fly, protrudes as much as four inches from its head--five times the length of its bee-size body. In flight the ungainly appendage dangles between the insect's legs and trails far behind its body.
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Evolution of extreme proboscis lengths in Neotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera)
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