Marco Silva Gottschalk

Changes in Brazilian Drosophilidae (Diptera) assemblages across an urbanisation gradient

The present study aims to characterise the assemblages of Drosophilidae sampled from four sites subject to different levels of urbanisation, in the city of Florianópolis, South Brazil. Five samples were collected between August 2000 and August 2001 and five between August 2002 and August 2003 in each site. A gradual change in the dominant species was observed in the urbanisation gradient, with an increase in relative abundance of exotic species in urban areas. Among the native species, the relative abundance of Drosophila capricorni Dobzhansky & Pavan had an expressive decrease. In the other hand the richness in the low urbanisation site increased, probably due to the presence of urban gardens. The diversity index did not vary significantly among sites, but its correlation with evenness and richness changed.

Global potential distribution of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is a species native to Western Asia that is able to pierce intact fruit during egg laying, causing it to be considered a fruit crop pest in many countries. Drosophila suzukii have a rapid expansion worldwide; occurrences were recorded in North America and Europe in 2008, and South America in 2013. Due to this rapid expansion, we modeled the potential distribution of this species using the Maximum Entropy Modeling (MaxEnt) algorithm and the Genetic Algorithm for Ruleset Production (GARP) using 407 sites with known occurrences worldwide and 11 predictor variables. After 1000 replicates, the value of the average area under the curve (AUC) of the model predictions with 1000 replicates was 0.97 for MaxEnt and 0.87 for GARP, indicating that both models had optimal performances. The environmental variables that most influenced the prediction of the MaxEnt model were the annual mean temperature, the maximum temperature of the warmest month, the mean temperature of the coldest quarter and the annual precipitation. The models indicated high environmental suitability, mainly in temperate and subtropical areas in the continents of Asia, Europe and North and South America, where the species has already been recorded. The potential for further invasions of the African and Australian continents is predicted due to the environmental suitability of these areas for this species.

Comparative ecological niche modeling and evolutionary ecology of Neotropical mycophagous Drosophilidae (Diptera) species

This study provides new records on the distribution of 22 species of mycophagous Drosophilidae and reports the southernmost and/or northernmost register points for most of them. Climatic modeling analysis revealed that the sampled species are heterogeneous as concerns the patterns of potential geographical ranges. A regular pattern emerging from the evaluated models is that the minimum temperature of the coldest month is one of the most determinant variables of habitat suitability for most species, although the particular response patterns may be further subdivided. In particular, some putative geographically restricted species appear to be highly susceptible to minor increases in the minimal temperature ranges, indicating that they are potential targets for the temperature rises expected to affect the Neotropics over the next decades and centuries. Moreover, as our analyses detected niche conservatism signals among the studied species, potential range shifts in face of future climatic oscillations may also be questioned.

Rhinoleucophenga joaquina sp. nov. (Diptera: Drosophilidae) from the Neotropical region.

The genus Rhinoleucophenga Hendel comprises 18 nominal species and has a Neotropical and Nearctic distribution. A new species was found in a collection in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil, and is described as Rhinoleucophenga joaquina sp. nov. The specimens found were reared from flowers of Dyckia encholirioides (Bromeliaceae), collected in a region of restinga on the dunes. The use of flowers as breeding site for Rhinoleucophenga has never been reported before.

Two New Species of the New World Genus Rhinoleucophenga (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

ABSTRACT. The genus Rhinoleucophenga Hendel (1917) encompasses 21 described species but is still not well known as a taxon. Even the currently described species lack full descriptions, i.e., illustrations of the male genitalia are absent, which makes their identification difficult. This study describes two new species of Rhinoleucophenga with the illustration of their male genitalia.

A new species of the genus Rhinoleucophenga (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and redescription of five species from Neotropical region

The genus Rhinoleucophenga Hendel comprises 29 nominal species with New World distribution. In the present study five species are redescribed: R. angustifrons Malogolowkin; R. lopesi Malogolowkin; R. matogrossensis Malogolowkin; R. nigrescens Malogolowkin and Rhinoleucophenga personata Malogolowkin. R. capixabensis Culik & Ventura is proposed as a new junior synonymy of R. lopesi. Other species, R. jacareacanga sp. nov., is described from the specimens deposited at CEIOC/Fiocruz. The description of new species and review of some former descriptions of Rhinoleucophenga is indispensable since the distribution records of some species are doubtful.

Diversity and associations between Drosophilidae (Diptera) species and Basidiomycetes in a Neotropical forest.

Drosophilidae is one of the most representative families of insects that occurs in fungal fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes; however, the diversity and community structure of mycophagous Drosophilidae in the Neotropical region is poorly known. The aims of the present study were to describe the diversity of mycophagous Drosophilidae and to investigate its colonization of fungal hosts in a forest of southern Brazil. From 120 fungal samples (patches of mushrooms) of 17 Basidiomycetes genera, flies were recorded emerging from 70 samples and collected in adult stages of 25 fungal samples, for a total of 4897 drosophilids belonging to 31 species and 5 genera. Drosophila Fallén was the most species-rich genus, whereas Hirtodrosophila Duda was the dominant genus. Studies performed in the Holarctic region indicate that mycophagous drosophilid have generalist habits; however, our results showed that most drosophilids use fewer than two fungal hosts, and most species of Hirtodrosophila and Leucophenga were restricted to abundant fungal species, suggesting a specialization for these resources. The most specialized fauna emerged from Auricularia, which was the most frequent fungal genus in our collection, and this result supports the assumption that specialization depends on the availability of fungal resources over time.

Redescription of Sibling Species of Rhinoleucophenga (Diptera: Drosophilidae): R. brasiliensis and R. fluminensis

Rhinoleucophenga Hendel comprises an unusual Drosophilidae (Diptera) genus with predaceous larvae, currently compounded by 29 nominal species with New World distribution. In the present study, Rhinoleucophenga brasiliensis (Costa Lima) and R. fluminensis (Costa Lima) are redescribed. These two species are commonly misidentified in Drosophilidae species inventories, mainly by the few morphological character details presented in the original taxonomic description. Thus, by the morphological review performed here, lectotype and paralectotypes designed to R. brasiliensis and R. fluminensis, as well as new morphological characters, drawings and photos (for the first time) are presented in order to avoid further taxonomic mistakes with those referred sibling species of Rhinoleucophenga.

Cryptic diversity and speciation in the Zygothrica genus group (Diptera, Drosophilidae): the case of Z. vittimaculosa Wiedemann

In this paper we describe a new Zygothrica species that is morphologically, ecologically and evolutionarily related to Zygothrica vittimaculosa through molecular and morphological analyses. Moreover, we compare distribution, abiotic and biotic niches between both species and perform ecological simulations in order to assess the potential influence played by ecology versus geography in the divergence of the target species, which was also dated with the use of a nuclear marker. The aedeagus and wing morphometry patterns were underpinned by molecular evidence, as obtained for the mitochondrial COI and COII partitions. In fact, reciprocal monophyly and a barcoding gap were detected, in spite of the strict external resemblance, the strong abiotic and biotic niche overlaps and the frequent sympatry and syntopy observed between both species. Thus, we hypothesize here a mechanism of geographic speciation associated with a pattern of niche conservatism to the pair of Zygothrica species diverged at the Pliocene.

Neotropical mycophagous drosophilids (Diptera: Drosophilidae): DNA barcoding as a way of overcoming the taxonomic impediment

Within Drosophilidae, the Zygothrica genus group corresponds to a speciose mycophagous group, which remains insufficiently investigated despite its potential for ecological and evolutionary studies. The recognised gap in the knowledge of species diversity and the threat provided by global warming due to niche conservatism and stringent temperature and humidity requirements make this group an excellent candidate for testing the implementation of DNA barcoding, which is the aim of this study. Extensive prospecting in various parts of Brazil provided 220 specimens. Considering both the morphological and molecular results, these individuals consisted of 56 species that could be distributed into three categories: 22 corresponded to previously described species, 24 very likely corresponded to undescribed species, and 10 uncertain cases corresponded mainly to one or a few females. Intra‐specific distances ranged from 0% to 5.3%, whereas inter‐specific congeneric and inter‐generic distances ranged from 2.4% to 21.7% and from 7.4% to 20% respectively. Moreover, all species were revealed as reciprocally monophyletic and presented positive barcoding gap values; 62.5% of them presented diagnostic characters. Although coalescent‐based methodologies suggested some additional splitting, species initially considered to be different were never lumped together. Therefore, in general, DNA barcoding of mycophagous drosophilids provided results that are largely congruent throughout different molecular approaches and also with morphological boundaries. Several putative new species were revealed, highlighting the potential of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcodes as a tool complementary to traditional taxonomy in unravelling cryptic diversity among Neotropical mycophagous drosophilids.