A new genus of scuttle fly (Diptera; Phoridae) whose legless, wingless, females mimic ant larvae (Hymenoptera; Formicidae)

Vestigipoda myrmolarvoidea is described as a new genus and species, from a series of females and associated larvae from a bivouac of Aenictus sp. in Malaysia. The mature females are legless, wingless and with elongated larviform abdomens. They are remarkable mimics of the larvae of their ant host. The ants evidently treat both the female flies and their larvae as though they were their own ant larvae.