<html dir="ltr">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style>
<!--
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math"}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma}
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline}
span.EmailStyle17
{font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D}
@page Section1
{margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt}
-->
</style><style type="text/css" id="owaParaStyle"></style>
</head>
<body lang="EN-GB" link="blue" vlink="purple" fpstyle="1" ocsi="0">
<div style="direction: ltr;font-family: Tahoma;color: #000000;font-size: 10pt;">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px;">
<div>
<pre><font face="Arial">Dear all</font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">a specific question to European entomologists. </font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">As in many mainland European countries, in Belgium we currently do have both Microdon myrmicae </font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">in boggy areas (pupae and larvae have been found), and a much larger sibling species living on hot dry calcereous grasslands that would categorize as</font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial"> "probable" M. mutabilis. </font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">However, M. mutabilis has been described in the UK living with the ant Formica lemanii that does not occur at these sites. </font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">A sibling ant species Formica fusca does occur on the chalk grasslands and we suspect it to be the host of the large "M mutabilis" that fly here, but we have been unable to find Microdon larvae in these nests, as yet. </font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">Can anyone comment on how they deal with this in their own country, and if anyone has found the M mutabilis larvae/puparia yet in mainland europe together with F fusca?</font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial"><br></font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">best regards</font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial"><br></font></pre>
<pre><font face="Arial">Frank</font></pre>
<pre style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>