Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse biomes on the planet. Nevertheless, quantifying the abundance and species richness within megadiverse groups is a significant challenge. We designed a study to address this challenge by documenting the variability of the insect fauna across a vertical canopy gradient in a Central Amazonian tropical forest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genus Botanophila Lioy has several species distributed in North America, but none had been recorded from Mexico. Here we describe three new species of Botanophila from the highlands of the Mexican Transition Zone. We include images of habitus, drawings of the terminalia and a key to facilitate the identification of species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStomopogon Malloch (Diptera, Muscidae) is a Neotropical genus recorded from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Peru. In this contribution, the genus is revised, and three new species are described, one from Bolivia (Murillo, La Paz), one from Brazil (Palmas, Paraná) and one from Peru (Wayqecha, Cuzco). The descriptions include color images, illustrations and ultrastructural morphology of the terminalia of the adult.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe new genus, Sumapazomyia gen. nov., is proposed for a new species, S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExcept for the introduced species, Telostylinus lineolatus Wiedemann, all Neriidae occurring in the Ethiopian Region belong to the genus Chaetonerius Hendel and only one species, C. alluaudi (Giglio-Tos), is known from the East African islands, described from Seychelles and also recorded for Madagascar and Mauritius. Herein, we describe four new species of Chaetonerius from the East African islands, including the first species of Neriidae from the Comoros (C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTraditional conservation techniques for mapping highly biodiverse areas assume there to be satisfactory knowledge about the geographic distribution of biodiversity. There are, however, large gaps in biological sampling and hence knowledge shortfalls. This problem is even more pronounced in the tropics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the neotropics, vegetation formations at high elevations are often unique, with their own characteristic vegetation because of unique and complex evolutionary histories. The complexity of the biogeographic and ecological structure of the fauna is demonstrated by the specialized fauna and flora occurring in these regions. Fanniidae (Diptera) is one of these specialized groups that became very diversified in the highlands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSixty years ago, Willi Hennig last catalogued the Anthomyiidae, Fanniidae and Muscidae fauna of the Juan Fernández Archipelago. This archipelago, composed of three main volcanic islands (Robinson Crusoe, Alejandro Selkirk and Santa Clara), has many endemic species. We describe Fannia hennigi sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfter a 20 years hiatus, we describe a new species, Polietina ponti sp. nov., from Madre de Dios, Tambopata River, Peru.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough Brazil is a megadiverse country and thus a conservation priority, no study has yet quantified conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas (PAs) using extensive empirical data. Here, we evaluate the degree of biodiversity protection and knowledge within all the Brazilian PAs through a gap analysis of vertebrate, arthropod and angiosperm occurrences and phylogenetic data. Our results show that the knowledge on biodiversity in most Brazilian PAs remain scant as 71% of PAs have less than 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently a new species of bombyliid fly, Marleyimyia xylocopae, was described by Marshall & Evenhuis (2015) based on two photographs taken during fieldwork in the Republic of South Africa. This species has no preserved holotype. The paper generated some buzz, especially among dipterists, because in most cases photographs taken in the field provide insufficient information for properly diagnosing and documenting species of Diptera.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Muscidae species in Colombia are first catalogued. 108 species and 41 genera are reported to the country, added with 14 new species not yet described in Agenamyia, Apsil, Drymeia, Graphomya and Reinwardtia genera. There are 15 new species records to Colombia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we catalogue 32 species in two genera of Fanniidae (Euryomma and Fannia) from Colombia and provide geographical information for all species, when available.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we catalogue six species in four genera of Anthomyiidae (Anthomyia, Calythea, Delia, and Emmesomyia) from Colombia and provide geographical information for all species, when available.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we provide a catalog of the Neriidae from Colombia, with all six genera and 17 species in alphabetical order. With each genus we provide references and with each species we include the original name, type-locality, acronym of the institution where the type is deposited and the known geographical distribution. In the case of samples only from Colombia, we provide additional details for locality, relevant synonymy and additional references.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFColombia has an imposing natural wealth due to its topography has many unique characteristics as a consequence of having Caribbean and Pacific shores, as well as sharing part of the Amazon basin and northern Andes mountains. Thus, many natural and biological features are due to the convergence of three biogeographical regions: Pacific, Andes and Amazonia. The Andean uplift created a complex mosaic of mountains and isolated valleys, including eleven biogeographical provinces (Morrone 2006).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe tribe Empidini (Diptera: Empididae: Empidinae) is a diverse group with fourteen genera, seven of which are exclusive to the Neotropical region: Bolrhamphomyia Rafael, Chilerhamphomyia Rafael, Hystrichonotus Collin, Lamprempis Wheeler and Melander, Macrostomus Wiedemann, Opeatocerata Melander and Porphyrochroa Melander. Although Empidini itself is likely paraphyletic, many presumably monophyletic genera and species groups are recognized. Here, we apply DNA sequences from multiple genes to infer the phylogeny of Empidini, focusing on placing the Neotropical lineages within the entire tribe and identifying monophyletic groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHouse flies are one of the best known groups of flies and comprise about 5000 species worldwide. Despite over a century of intensive taxonomic research on these flies, classification of the Muscidae is still poorly resolved. Here we brought together the most diverse molecular dataset ever examined for the Muscidae, with 142 species in 67 genera representing all tribes and all biogeographic regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Forensic Sci
January 2015
Southern Brazil is unique due to its subtropical climate. Here, we report on the first forensic entomology case and the first record of Sarconesia chlorogaster (Wiedemann) in a human corpse in this region. Flies' samples were collected from a body indoors at 20°C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genus Glyphidops Enderlein, 1922, the most widespread and speciose of the New World genera of Neriidae (Diptera), is revised herein. Glyphidops (Glyphidops) ruselatus, new species, G. (G.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPalpilongus gen. n. is herein described for one species - Palpilongus bifurcus sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we revise Eoneria Aczdl, 1951, a small genus of flies in the Neriidae, previously known from two species from Argentina. We describe a new species, E. aczeli Sepúlveda & Carvalho from Colombia, provide new records from Brazil, a distribution extension from Argentina and a new genus diagnosis, as well as an identification key based on adult morphology.
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