Phoresis

[3] Phoresis is used as a strategy for dispersal,[5][6] seasonal migration,[7] transport to new host/habitat,[8] escaping ephemeral habitats,[9][3] and reducing inbreeding depression.

[4] The strict definition of phoresis excludes cases in which the relationship is permanent (e.g. that of a barnacle surviving on a whale), or those in which the phoront gains any kind of advantage from the host organism (e.g. remoras attaching to sharks for transportation and food).

Parasitic relationships could also be selected from phoretic ones if the phoront gains a fitness advantage from the death of a host (e.g. nutrition).

Larvae of the blister beetle (Meloe franciscanus) need to find the nests of their host, the solitary bee (Habropoda pallida), to continue their life cycle.

This stage has reduced mouthparts, a well-sclerotised body that resists desiccation, and usually a posteroventral organ for attaching to the host animal (which may be an invertebrate or a vertebrate).

Astigmatans often live in patchy and ephemeral habitats such as fungal fruiting bodies, dung, carrion, animal nests, tree sap flows and decaying wood.

[15] A specific example is deutonymphs of Lardoglyphus dispersing on beetles in the genus Dermestes to reach new habitats (both phoront and host feed on animal materials).

Phoretic nematodes (Rhabditoides) and mites (e.g. genera Macrocheles, Poecilochirus, Uroobovella) use the beetles to reach these rich resources, where they themselves reproduce.