Drosophila suzukii ovoposits and feeds on healthy fruits, unlike most other Drosophila species. It has been traditionally reported from Asia, but in the last 2 years it has been recorded from North America, where it is causing a lot of agricultural damage. Herein we report the first records of, D. suzukii in Europe. It has been found in different localities expanding an altitudinal range from 27 to 1550 m above sea level (ab.s.l). Furthermore by comparing collections of drosophilids from different European populations distributed along a latitudinal cline we were able to determine its high dispersal ability since it spread approximately 1400 km in 1 year either actively or passively through infested fruits. The similarities of the introduction dates in North America and Europe and the COI haplotypes suggest that the two invasions could be related. No considerable damage on crops has been reported yet in Europe. However, if this species gets established in more temperate localities it could become a serious pest. Therefore tracking the invasion of this species is recommended. An early detection of this potential pest is decisive for good management of the fields.

Three out of the 80 plates of fine line drawings of male terminalia in the book entitled The Drosophilidae (Diptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark, published by Brill, Leiden, were misprinted. Here, these three plates have been reprinted, in the manner that they should have been published originally, and provide an accurate representation of the complex male terminalia of Amiota subtusradiata, Leucophenga quinquemaculata, and Phortica variegata.

1. Elevational gradients influence the distribution and abundance of species drastically and can lead to variation in community composition. Although coprophagous flies are of ecological and economic importance, their biodiversity and distribution are largely neglected. We studied the impact of steep elevational gradients and geography on the distribution of sepsid flies in the Swiss Alps.2. Sepsidae are a family of acalyptrate flies strongly associated with decaying organic matter and vertebrate dung, and characterised by a high extent of sympatry in their breeding substrates. Historical, haphazardly sampled specimens from 116 locations covering an elevational range from 200 to 2000 m were available in ethanol collections of various Swiss museums.3. Nineteen species encompassing all native genera (Meroplius, Nemopoda, Saltella, Sepsis and Themira) were recorded. Local species richness increased linearly with elevation, while area-corrected regional species richness of elevational belts increased asymptotically. Species occurring at higher altitudes had lower wing loadings and greater elevational ranges than lowland species, supporting Rapoport's elevational rule.4. Despite compositional similarities, the sepsid communities of the northern lowlands differed significantly from the alpine sepsid fauna. The southern lowlands were particularly differentiated in community composition due to a number of presumably thermophilic species that predominantly occur south of the Alps.5. Relative abundances of several species were thus strongly affected by elevation and climatic variables. We illustrate the impact of elevational gradients and geography on a community of closely related, often sympatric species, and discuss potential mechanisms of niche partitioning via temporal succession, thermal adaptation and differential resource use.

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Support for macroecological rules in insects is mixed, with potential confounding interrelations between patterns rarely studied. We here investigate global patterns in body and wing size, sexual size dimorphism and range size in common fruit flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and explore potential interrelations and the predictive power of Allen's, Bergmann's, Rensch's and Rapoport's rules. We found that thorax length (r2 = 0.05) and wing size (r2 = 0.09) increased with latitude, supporting Bergmann's rule. Contrary to patterns often found in endothermic vertebrates, relative wing size increased towards the poles (r2 = 0.12), a pattern against Allen's rule, which we attribute to selection for increased flight capacity in the cold. Sexual size dimorphism decreased with size, evincing Rensch's rule across the family (r2 = 0.14). Yet, this pattern was largely driven by the virilis–repleta radiation. Finally, range size did not correlate with latitude, although a positive relationship was present in a subset of the species investigated, providing no convincing evidence for Rapoport's rule. We further found little support for confounding interrelations between body size, wing loading and range size in this taxon. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that studying several traits simultaneously at minimum permits better interpretation in case of multiple, potentially conflicting trends or hypotheses concerning the macroecology of insects.

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all extant multicellular European terrestrial and freshwater animals and their geographical distribution at the level of countries and major islands (east of the Urals and excluding the Caucasus region). The Fauna Europaea project comprises about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. Fauna Europaea represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing taxonomic specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many user communities in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. The Diptera–Brachycera is one of the 58 Fauna Europaea major taxonomic groups, and data have been compiled by a network of 55 specialists.Within the two-winged insects (Diptera), the Brachycera constitute a monophyletic group, which is generally given rank of suborder. The Brachycera may be classified into the probably paraphyletic 'lower brachyceran grade' and the monophyletic Eremoneura. The latter contains the Empidoidea, the Apystomyioidea with a single Nearctic species, and the Cyclorrhapha, which in turn is divided into the paraphyletic 'aschizan grade' and the monophyletic Schizophora. The latter is traditionally divided into the paraphyletic 'acalyptrate grade' and the monophyletic Calyptratae. Our knowledge of the European fauna of Diptera–Brachycera varies tremendously among families, from the reasonably well known hoverflies (Syrphidae) to the extremely poorly known scuttle flies (Phoridae). There has been a steady growth in our knowledge of European Diptera for the last two centuries, with no apparent slow down, but there is a shift towards a larger fraction of the new species being found among the families of the nematoceran grade (lower Diptera), which due to a larger number of small-sized species may be considered as taxonomically more challenging.Most of Europe is highly industrialised and has a high human population density, and the more fertile habitats are extensively cultivated. This has undoubtedly increased the extinction risk for numerous species of brachyceran flies, yet with the recent re-discovery of Thyreophora cynophila (Panzer), there are no known cases of extinction at a European level. However, few national Red Lists have extensive information on Diptera.For the Diptera–Brachycera, data from 96 families containing 11,751 species are included in this paper.

On a forested mountain slope in the Swiss Alps gene arrangements of D. subobscura were sampled from altitudes between 600 and 1900 m above sea level during the years 1977 and 1979. In both years the standard arrangement of chromosome I increased in frequency with altitude. Judging from the pattern of gene arrangement frequencies the population was spatially structured on a fine scale within altitude and on a coarser scale between altitudes. There were temporal changes between years. In spite of the fact that D. subobscura is at its ecological margin at the timberline no evidence of reduced variability was found there.

Nearctic Chymomyza amoena, an eastern US forest drosophilid, was initially known only to breed in damaged or parasitized nuts and had been little studied. It has been spreading in Europe since its discovery in the former Czechoslovakia in 1975.