Only a few species survived an asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. About a dozen of these also occur in Austria. This includes the black-necked camelfly, whose genome has now been completely decoded for the first time.
The researchers hope that their results, published in the Journal of Heredity, will provide new insights into the evolution of these once species-rich “living fossils.”
For the Viennese entomologist Horst Aspöck, emeritus at the Medical University of Vienna, camel-necked flies are ‘living fossils’. Fossils of representatives of this order of insects that lived in the time of the dinosaurs can hardly be distinguished from modern species.
Today there are about 250 species, a ‘pathetic remnant’ of the camelneck flies, which were much more widespread and species-rich in the Mesozoic era (252 to 66 million years ago). However, only those species that could adapt to the changed temperatures survived the climate changes caused by the asteroid impact.
In 2022, the camelneck fly was named “Insect of the Year” (see video above).
The black-necked camel fly (Venustoraphidia nigricollis) belongs to the lowest species order of insects with complete metamorphosis, i.e. with a pupal stage, which is widespread in Europe. Even in the center of Vienna, on Maria-Thérèsien-Platz, between the art and natural history museums, there is a colony.
Camelneck flies spend most of their lives, usually two or more years, as larvae. During this time they feed mainly on eggs and larvae of other insects, such as pests such as moths and bark beetles. When they hatch at the beginning of summer, other small, soft-skinned insects, especially aphids and scale insects, are also on their menu.
The name comes from the distinctive shape of the diurnal, predatory insects, which are usually less than two centimeters long: they have a strongly elongated first thoracic segment and a long, flat head, both of which are highly mobile and directed upwards.
Source: Krone
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