{"id":6261,"date":"2025-10-09T03:39:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T08:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/?p=6261"},"modified":"2025-10-09T08:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:58:07","slug":"pseudolithos-migiurtinus-attracts-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/pseudolithos-migiurtinus-attracts-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"Pseudolithos migiurtinus Attracts Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h1>\n

Pseudolithos migiurtinus<\/em> is endemic to northeastern Somalia<\/strong> (the old Migiurtinia region, including localities around Eyl). It grows on open, stony grit in full sun under desert to semi-desert<\/strong> conditions\u2014genuinely arid terrain rather than merely \u201cslightly arid\u201d\u2014within desert\/dry-shrubland biomes.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: this is a true arid-land stapeliad<\/strong> that lures small flies with carrion-mimicking cues from tiny, dark, urn-shaped flowers; actual pollen transfer is done by minute midges and other saprophilous flies<\/strong> attracted by the ruse.<\/p>\n

The Details<\/h1>\n

How it attracts pollinators<\/h4>\n

Like most stapeliads, P. migiurtinus<\/em> uses sapromyiophily<\/strong>\u2014mimicry of carrion\/dung. The small, dark maroon to reddish flowers are urn-shaped with a narrow mouth and tufted lobe tips. A faint foul odor plus the color\/texture guides flies to probe the flower throat and across the corona, where pollinia are picked up or deposited.<\/p>\n

Pollinators (what visits\/does the job)<\/h4>\n

Direct observations in the genus point to very small flies (midges)<\/strong> as effective pollinators. More broadly in stapeliads, saprophilous Diptera<\/strong>\u2014blow flies, house flies, flesh flies\u2014regularly visit and likely contribute to pollination of P. migiurtinus<\/em> where it occurs.<\/p>\n

What the plant looks like<\/h4>\n

A leafless, stone-like succulent<\/strong>, usually a single globose to short-cylindrical stem with a tessellated (\u201ccobbled\u201d) surface, typically 4\u201312 cm tall and ~2\u20136.5 cm across<\/strong>, colored green to ochre or reddish-brown depending on light stress. Flowers arise in small clusters; the tube is paler, the lobes deep red to maroon with short hairs. Fruits are the characteristic stapeliad paired follicles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Additional Reading: Stapelia<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Pseudolithos <\/a>
Pseudolithos migiurtinus, Abu Shawka <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pseudolithos <\/a>
Pseudolithos mccoyi, Karlos69 <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pseudolithos <\/a>
Pseudolithos dodsonianus in flower, Michael Wolf-Penig <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pseudolithos <\/a>
Pseudolithos caput-viperae, Lavranos <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Stapeliad <\/a>
Stapeliad with Pollinator Fly <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction Pseudolithos migiurtinus is endemic to northeastern Somalia (the old Migiurtinia region, including localities around Eyl). It grows on open, stony grit in full sun under desert to semi-desert conditions\u2014genuinely arid terrain rather than merely \u201cslightly arid\u201d\u2014within desert\/dry-shrubland biomes. Bottom line: this is a true arid-land stapeliad that lures small flies with carrion-mimicking cues from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[29,5,21,22],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals","category-succulents","tag-africa","tag-flowers","tag-other-succulent","tag-unusual"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pseudolithos-mccoyi-with-flower-Lavranos.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6272,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions\/6272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}