Conspecifics of a heterotrophic heteronomous species of Strepsiptera (Insecta) are matched by molecular characterization

The family Myrmecolacidae (Strepsiptera) exhibit the unusual phenomenon of sexually dimorphic host relationships known as heterotrophic heteronomy, whereby males parasitize ants and females parasitize grasshoppers, crickets and mantids. It has therefore been impossible phenotypically to match male Myrmecolacidae to their conspecific females: the male and female of only one species have so far been unequivocally matched, and this was by molecular characterization. Here we report another match of a male and its conspecific female: by comparison of the CO1 and 18S genes of male Myrmecolax incautus Oliveira and Kogan, which parasitizes a ponerine ant from French Guyana, and a female strepsipteran, which parasitizes a mantid from Brazil. The male M. incautus is redescribed, and the first descriptions of the neotenic female, the male cephalotheca and the first instar larva are given. We also report for the first time dimorphic hosts of the male and the female M. incautus, and describe for the first time, the behaviour of stylopized ants.