SHORT COMMUNICATION Fruit- and seed-feeding habit of the crane fly Libnotes puella (Diptera: Limoniidae) in Ryukyu Islands, Japan Kenji SUETSUGU 1 , Shintaro TETSU 2 and Masahiro SUEYOSHI 3 1 Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan, 2 United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan and 3 Center for Biodiversity, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Tsukuba, Japan Abstract Although most crane fly larvae consume decaying plant materials and their associated microorganisms, all Libnotes species investigated so far are known to be xylophilous insects. Here we report the novel herbivo- rous feeding ecology of Libnotes puella. We found that L. puella larvae consumed the fruits or seeds of three unrelated plants, Mitrastemon yamamotoi (Mitrastemonaceae), Balanophora tobiracola (Balanophoraceae) and Barringtonia racemosa (Lecythidaceae). The larvae live within dense tubes formed by their feces fastened by their mucous excretions at the final stage, and they pupate within such tubes. This is the first detailed documentation of the fruit- and seed-feeding habit of crane flies. Key words: frugivory, herbivory, host plants, phytophagous insect. Tipuloidea (= Tipulidae sensu lato or Cylindrotomidae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae and Tipulidae sensu stricto) (crane flies) are most commonly encountered in the adult stage, when they can be easily recognized owing to their typically large, long-legged, and delicate appearance (Petersen et al. 2010). Conversely, the lar- val ecology of crane flies is poorly understood, but it is known that the larvae dwell in various habitats, includ- ing aquatic (marine and freshwater), semiaquatic (marshes and springs), and terrestrial habitats (moist soil, wood in various stages of decay, fungi, leaf litter, vertebrate nests and vegetation) (Pritchard 1983; De Jong et al. 2008). Furthermore, the feeding habit in the larval stage is also diverse, although the majority of crane fly larvae consume decaying plant materials and their associated microorganisms (Alexander & Byers 1981; Pritchard 1983; Petersen et al. 2010). For exam- ple, some groups such as Cylindrotomidae feed on live plants (mosses, liverworts and higher plants), whereas Pediciidae and most Limnophilinae are predators (Alexander & Byers 1981; Pritchard 1983; Petersen et al. 2010). In fact, the phytophagous habit of these insects has evolved several times from saprophagous (feeding on decaying material) ancestors in not only Tipuloidea, but also other lineages of Diptera (Uffen & Chandler 1978). Libnotes Westwood is a genus of the family Limoniidae and comprises approximately 300 species that are mainly distributed in Africa and Asia (Oosterbroek 2019); L. puella has been recorded only on Kyushu Island and on several islands in Ryukyu, Japan and Korea (Alexander 1925; Podenas et al. 2015; Kato et al. 2016). Although Libnotes biology has been poorly stud- ied (Podenas et al. 2015; Kato et al. 2016), Krivosheina (2008) has reported that all six species investigated are xylophilous at the larval stage. It should be noted that the preference for wood decaying conditions seems to differ among Libnotes species. For example, larvae of L. ladogensis Lackschewitz, 1940, develop in the galler- ies of the bark beetle Trypodendron within a trunk (Krivosheina 2008). Libnotes ladogensis is also known to carry spores of the ambrosia fungus Deuteromycetes (Krivosheina 2008). Therefore, although Libnotes larvae may feed on Deuteromycetes mycelium, it remains unknown whether the fungal mycelia or wood constitutes the bulk of the diet. In contrast, larvae of L. kariyana Alexander, 1947, develop within freshly broken or even living trunks of Phellodendron sachalinense (Rutaceae) that are not infected by mycelia (Krivosheina 2008). Correspondence: Kenji Suetsugu, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. Email: kenji.suetsugu@gmail.com Received 20 April 2019; accepted 25 August 2019. © 2019 The Entomological Society of Japan Entomological Science (2019) doi: 10.1111/ens.12387