Glacier retreat triggers changes in biodiversity and plant-pollinator interaction diversity.

Unlabelled: Due to global warming, the worldwide retreat of glaciers is causing changes in species diversity, community composition, and species interactions. However, the impact of glacier retreat on interaction diversity and ecological networks remains poorly understood. An integrative understanding of network dynamics may inform conservation actions that support biodiversity and ecosystem functioning after glacier extinction.

Identification of Dipteran species inhabiting Tuber aestivum (the summer truffle) ascomata.

Tuber spp. (Ascomycota) forms hypogeous fruiting bodies (truffles) that host many microbial species as well as invertebrates which feed on them. Despite the larvae and adults of Diptera and Coleoptera are commonly found to inhabit truffles, molecular investigations assessing their occurrence are still few and the number of species is probably underestimated.

Phylogenomics resolves long-standing questions about the affinities of an endangered Corsican endemic fly.

Recent studies on oestroidean Diptera (Brachycera) are providing a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the evolutionary history of this remarkably diverse clade of holometabolous insects. The Oestroidea, which includes formidable pests such as various blowflies, botflies, and flesh flies that infest livestock, pets and humans, are mostly composed of beneficial species that act as scavengers or parasitoids on various pest insects. In our research, we used genomic methods to elucidate the phylogenetic position of Nesodexia corsicana Villeneuve, 1911 (Diptera: Calliphoridae), a mysterious oestroid species endemic to Corsica and characterized by distinctive morphological features that have puzzled taxonomists for years.

Elevational homogenization of mountain parasitoids across six decades.

Elevational gradients are characterized by strong environmental changes within small geographical distances, providing important insights on the response of biological communities to climate change. Mountain biodiversity is particularly sensitive to climate change, given the limited capacity to colonize new areas and the competition from upshifting lowland species. Knowledge on the impact of climate change on mountain insect communities is patchy, but elevation is known to influence parasitic interactions which control insect communities and functions within ecosystems.

Phylogenetic relationships of the woodlouse flies (Diptera: Rhinophorinae) and the cluster flies (Diptera: Polleniidae).

Phylogenetic relationships within the oestroid subclades Rhinophorinae (Calliphoridae) and Polleniidae were reconstructed for the first time, applying a Sanger sequencing approach using the two protein-coding nuclear markers CAD (carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamylase, and dihydroorotase; 1794 bp) and MCS (molybdenum cofactor sulfurase; 2078 bp). Three genera of Polleniidae and nineteen genera of Rhinophorinae were analyzed together with a selection of taxa representing the major lineages of Oestroidea (non-rhinophorine Calliphoridae, Oestridae, Sarcophagidae, Tachinidae). The selected markers provide good resolution and moderate to strong support of the distal branches, but weak support for several deeper nodes.

Nominal genera and species of Diptera misidentified as to family by A.Z. Lehrer (Diptera: Muscidae, Tachinidae).

Nominal genera and species misidentified to family by A.Z. Lehrer are revised and annotated, with habitus photographs given for all holotypes.

Robber flies and hover flies (Insecta, Diptera, Asilidae and Syrphidae) in beech forests of the central Apennines: a contribution to the inventory of insect biodiversity in Italian State Nature Reserves.

Background: The present paper describes a sampling-event dataset on species belonging to two families of Diptera (Syrphidae and Asilidae) collected between 2012 and 2019 in two Italian beech forests located in the central Apennines. The reference dataset consists of an annotated checklist and has been published on Zenodo. Syrphidae and Asilidae are two widespread and key ecological groups, including predator, pollinator and saproxylic species.

A world review of the bristle fly parasitoids of webspinners.

Background: Dipteran parasitoids of Embioptera (webspinners) are few and extremely rare but known from all biogeographical regions except Australasia/Oceania. All belong to the fly family Tachinidae, a hyperdiverse and widespread clade of parasitoids attacking a variety of arthropod orders.

Results: The webspinner-parasitizing Diptera are reviewed based mostly on records from the collecting and rearing by Edward S.

New Cretaceous empidoids and the Mesozoic dance fly revolution (Diptera: Empidoidea).

Dance flies and relatives (Empidoidea) are a diverse and ecologically important group of Diptera in nearly all modern terrestrial ecosystems. Their fossil record, despite being scattered, attests to a long evolutionary history dating back to the early Mesozoic. Here, we describe seven new species of Empidoidea from Cretaceous Kachin amber inclusions, assigning them to the new genus Electrochoreutes gen.

Catalogue of the Diptera (Insecta) of Morocco- an annotated checklist, with distributions and a bibliography.

The faunistic knowledge of the Diptera of Morocco recorded from 1787 to 2021 is summarized and updated in this first catalogue of Moroccan Diptera species. A total of 3057 species, classified into 948 genera and 93 families (21 Nematocera and 72 Brachycera), are listed. Taxa (superfamily, family, genus and species) have been updated according to current interpretations, based on reviews in the literature, the expertise of authors and contributors, and recently conducted fieldwork.

Functional traits of plants and pollinators explain resource overlap between honeybees and wild pollinators.

Managed and wild pollinators often cohabit in both managed and natural ecosystems. The western honeybee, Apis mellifera, is the most widespread managed pollinator species. Due to its density and behaviour, it can potentially influence the foraging activity of wild pollinators, but the strength and direction of this effect are often context-dependent.

DiversityScanner: Robotic handling of small invertebrates with machine learning methods.

Invertebrate biodiversity remains poorly understood although it comprises much of the terrestrial animal biomass, most species and supplies many ecosystem services. The main obstacle is specimen-rich samples obtained with quantitative sampling techniques (e.g.

New and confirmed records of fruit flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) from Italy.

Background: Prior to this study, 141 species of Tephritidae were known to occur in Italy.

New Information: Italian records of nine species of the family Tephritidae (Diptera) are provided. Five species, (Loew, 1840), Merz, 1992, (Loew, 1856), (Meigen, 1826) and Jermy, 1961 are recorded from Italy for the first time, whereas four species, (Frauenfeld, 1857), (Meigen, 1826), Merz, 1992 and Merz, 1992, previously recorded in the Fauna Europaea database without reference to collection material, are confirmed and supplemented with host plant data and other collection data.

Discovery of in Myanmar Cretaceous Amber: Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Implications (Insecta, Diptera, Phoroidea).

sp. nov. is described from Late Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, integrating traditional observation techniques and X-ray phase contrast microtomography.

Growing the Rhinophorid Tree: Three New Species and Their Phylogenetic Implications (Diptera: Rhinophoridae).

Three new species of Rhinophoridae (, from the Oriental Region, and from the Afrotropical Region) are described, illustrated and compared with congeners. Genus-level affiliation of the new species is based on a morphology-based phylogeny, preliminarily accepting a paraphyletic Robineau-Desvoidy awaiting incorporation of molecular data. Keys to the species of the genus Pape & Shima as well as to the Afrotropical species of the genus Robineau-Desvoidy are given.

An experimental approach to assessing the impact of ecosystem engineers on biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

Plants acting as ecosystem engineers create habitats and facilitate biodiversity maintenance within plant communities. Furthermore, biodiversity research has demonstrated that plant diversity enhances the productivity and functioning of ecosystems. However, these two fields of research developed in parallel and independent from one another, with the consequence that little is known about the role of ecosystem engineers in the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across trophic levels.

The world Polleniidae (Diptera, Oestroidea): key to genera and checklist of species.

A key to the world genera and a checklist of the world species for the family Polleniidae, including distributions, are provided. The following taxonomic and nomenclatural changes are proposed: Lehrer, 2007 = Grunin, 1966, , Lehrer, 2007 = Villeneuve, 1911, , Jacentkovský, 1941 = Séguy, 1928, ; Malloch, 1928, (monotypic; type species Malloch) is considered a valid name and tentatively assigned to Polleniidae, giving (Malloch, 1927) as a ; (Villeneuve, 1936), is considered a valid species, and Enderlein, 1936, is considered an available name.

eggs on blow flies attracted to millipede defence secretions in Tanzania, with a stab at summarising their biology (Diptera: Conopidae & Calliphoridae).

The genus Macquart (Diptera: Conopidae) is sister to the remainder of the Conopidae. While all other Conopidae are endoparasitoids of aculeate Hymenoptera, species of appear to be endoparasitoids of 'orthopteroids', as the only confirmed rearing records are from crickets and cockroaches. Many calyptrate flies have been observed with eggs attached, but since no have been reared from any dipterans, it is still unknown if these flies are hosts, results of accidental oviposition or carry the eggs to the actual hosts.

Tachinid (Diptera, Tachinidae) parasitoids of (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) and other moths.

The present paper reports data on the biology of eleven species of tachinid flies collected in Italy and Spain on different host plants and emerged from different host larvae. An annotated list of the eleven species emerged from the collected lepidopterans is provided; information about distribution and biology are given as well as the description of their puparia. Two new parasitoid species of the European Grapevine Moth (EGVM) were recorded: , whose host preferences were unknown so far, and .

The world woodlouse flies (Diptera, Rhinophoridae).

The world Rhinophoridae are catalogued, recognising 33 genera and 177 species. Nomenclatural information is provided for all genus-group and species-group names, including lists of synonyms and name-bearing type data. Species distributions are recorded by country.

Phylogenomic analysis of Calyptratae: resolving the phylogenetic relationships within a major radiation of Diptera.

The Calyptratae, one of the most species-rich fly clades, only originated and diversified after the Cretaceous-Palaeogene extinction event and yet exhibit high species diversity and a diverse array of life history strategies including predation, phytophagy, saprophagy, haematophagy and parasitism. We present the first phylogenomic analysis of calyptrate relationships. The analysis is based on 40 species representing all calyptrate families and on nucleotide and amino acid data for 1456 single-copy protein-coding genes obtained from shotgun sequencing of transcriptomes.

Stevenia gilasiani sp. nov. (Diptera: Rhinophoridae): the first woodlouse fly with male sexual-patches.

Stevenia gilasiani Ziegler, Gisondi Cerretti, sp. nov. from western Iran is described and illustrated.

Artificial illumination near rivers may alter bat-insect trophic interactions.

Artificial illumination at night represents an increasingly concerning threat to ecosystems worldwide, altering persistence, behaviour, physiology and fitness of many organisms and their mutual interactions, in the long-term affecting ecosystem functioning. Bats are very sensitive to artificial light at night because they are obligate nocturnal and feed on insects which are often also responsive to lights. Here we tested the effects of LED lighting on prey-predator interactions at riverine ecosystems, using bats and their insect prey as models, and compared bat and insect reactions in terms of bat activity and prey insect abundance and diversity, respectively, on artificially lit vs.

Impact of urbanization on predator and parasitoid insects at multiple spatial scales.

Landscapes are becoming increasingly urbanized, causing loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, with potentially negative effects on biodiversity. Insects are among the organisms with the largest diversity in urbanized environments. Here, we sampled predator (Ampulicidae, Sphecidae and Crabronidae) and parasitoid (Tachinidae) flower-visiting insects in 36 sites in the city of Rome (Italy).