Metriocnemus knabi
| Metriocnemus knabi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Metriocnemus knabi larvae[1] | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Family: | Chironomidae |
| Genus: | Metriocnemus |
| Species: | M. knabi |
| Binomial name | |
| Metriocnemus knabi Coquillett, 1904 | |
Metriocnemus knabi, the pitcher plant midge, is an inquiline midge found only in the phytotelma of the purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea. In this microcommunity of bacteria, rotifers, protozoa, and other dipteran larva like Wyeomyia smithii, M. knabi specializes by feeding mostly on the carcasses of drowned insects captured by the plant that collect at the bottom of the pitcher.[2][3] Metriocnemus knabi occurs widely across the North American range of its host, from Florida in the south through eastern Canada in the north and as far west as Alberta.[4]
References
- ↑ Schulz, K. "iNaturalist: Photo 11603732, (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY)". Retrieved 8 July 2022.
- ↑ Heard, Stephen B. (1994). "Pitcher-plant midges and mosquitoes: a processing chain commensalism". Ecology. 75 (6): 1647–1660. Bibcode:1994Ecol...75.1647H. doi:10.2307/1939625. JSTOR 1939625.
- ↑ Mouquet, N.; Daufresne, T.; Gray, S. M.; Miller, T. E. (2008). "Modelling the relationship between a pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) and its phytotelma community: mutualism or parasitism?". Functional Ecology. 22 (4): 728–737. Bibcode:2008FuEco..22..728M. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01421.x.
- ↑ Buckley, Hannah L.; Miller, Thomas E.; Ellison, Aaron M.; Gotelli, Nicholas J. (2010). "Local- to continental-scale variation in the richness and composition of an aquatic food web". Global Ecology and Biogeography. 19 (5): 711–723. doi:10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00554.x.