Pitcher Plant Midge
Metriocnemus knabi Coquillett, 1904
Pitcher Plant Midge: https://marylandbiodiversity.com/species/22250
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1 Record

GAALWAFRCLMOHOBABCHACEPGAACVCHSMKEQACNTADOWISOWO

Where To Find

Found only in association with the Purple Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea).

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Source: Wikipedia

Metriocnemus knabi
Metriocnemus knabi larvae[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Chironomidae
Genus: Metriocnemus
Species:
M. knabi
Binomial name
Metriocnemus knabi

Metriocnemus knabi, the pitcher plant midge, is an inquiline invertebrate 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] It is found in the eastern United States, as far north as Maine and south to North Carolina.[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Schulz, K. "iNaturalist: Photo 11603732, (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY)". Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Metriocnemus knabi". harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 23 July 2017.


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