Study of all flies (Diptera) collected for one year from a four-hectare (150 x 266 meter) patch of cloud forest at 1,600 meters above sea level at Zurquí de Moravia, San José Province, Costa Rica (hereafter referred to as Zurquí), revealed an astounding 4,332 species. This amounts to more than half the number of named species of flies for all of Central America. Specimens were collected with two Malaise traps running continuously and with a wide array of supplementary collecting methods for three days of each month. All morphospecies from all 73 families recorded were fully curated by technicians before submission to an international team of 59 taxonomic experts for identification.Overall, a Malaise trap on the forest edge captured 1,988 species or 51% of all collected dipteran taxa (other than of Phoridae, subsampled only from this and one other Malaise trap). A Malaise trap in the forest sampled 906 species. Of other sampling methods, the combination of four other Malaise traps and an intercept trap, aerial/hand collecting, 10 emergence traps, and four CDC light traps added the greatest number of species to our inventory. This complement of sampling methods was an effective combination for retrieving substantial numbers of species of Diptera. Comparison of select sampling methods (considering 3,487 species of non-phorid Diptera) provided further details regarding how many species were sampled by various methods.Comparison of species numbers from each of two permanent Malaise traps from Zurquí with those of single Malaise traps at each of Tapantí and Las Alturas, 40 and 180 km distant from Zurquí respectively, suggested significant species turnover. Comparison of the greater number of species collected in all traps from Zurquí did not markedly change the degree of similarity between the three sites, although the actual number of species shared did increase.Comparisons of the total number of named and unnamed species of Diptera from four hectares at Zurquí is equivalent to 51% of all flies named from Central America, greater than all the named fly fauna of Colombia, equivalent to 14% of named Neotropical species and equal to about 2.7% of all named Diptera worldwide. Clearly the number of species of Diptera in tropical regions has been severely underestimated and the actual number may surpass the number of species of Coleoptera.Various published extrapolations from limited data to estimate total numbers of species of larger taxonomic categories (e.g., Hexapoda, Arthropoda, Eukaryota, etc.) are highly questionable, and certainly will remain uncertain until we have more exhaustive surveys of all and diverse taxa (like Diptera) from multiple tropical sites.Morphological characterization of species in inventories provides identifications placed in the context of taxonomy, phylogeny, form, and ecology. DNA barcoding species is a valuable tool to estimate species numbers but used alone fails to provide a broader context for the species identified.

Estimations of tropical insect diversity generally suffer from lack of known groups or faunas against which extrapolations can be made, and have seriously underestimated the diversity of some taxa. Here we report the intensive inventory of a four-hectare tropical cloud forest in Costa Rica for one year, which yielded 4332 species of Diptera, providing the first verifiable basis for diversity of a major group of insects at a single site in the tropics. In total 73 families were present, all of which were studied to the species level, providing potentially complete coverage of all families of the order likely to be present at the site. Even so, extrapolations based on our data indicate that with further sampling, the actual total for the site could be closer to 8000 species. Efforts to completely sample a site, although resource-intensive and time-consuming, are needed to better ground estimations of world biodiversity based on limited sampling.

Background: Bluetongue virus (BTV), an arthropod-borne member of the Reoviridae family, is a double-stranded RNA segmented virus that causes an economically important livestock disease which has spread across Europe in recent decades. It can infect many species of domestic and wild ruminants including sheep, deer, cattle and goats. Type I interferon (alpha/beta interferon [IFN-␣/␤]) production was reported in vivo and in vitro upon BTV infection. However the cellular sensors and signaling pathways involved in this process remain unknown.Methods: The effect of BTV strains and replication on IFN-␤ production during a kinetic of infection was assessed at the mRNA level by real-time quantitative RT-PCR (RT-q-PCR) and at the protein level by IFN-␤ ELISA. The involvement of the IRF3 and NF-kB transcriptional factors in the IFN-␤ production was determined by immunoblot and immunofluorescence analyses. SiRNA-mediated knockdown of several pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) was used to determine their contribution in the IFN-␤ production following BTV infection.Results: Upon BTV infection of A549 cells, expression of IFN-␤ and other pro-inflammatory cytokines was strongly induced at both protein and mRNA levels. This production appeared to be dependent on virus replication, since infection with UV-inactivated virus could no longer induce IFN-␤. We could also demonstrate that BTV infection activated the IRF3 and NF-kB pathways. Interestingly, the expression of IFN-␤ mRNA was greatly reduced after siRNA-mediated knockdown of the RNA helicases retinoic acidinducible gene-I (RIG-I) or melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5), or their common adaptor protein mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS). In contrast, silencing of MyD88, Toll-like receptor-3 (TLR-3) or the recently described DexD/H-box helicase DDX1 sensor had no effect on IFN-␤ mRNA induction. Finally, we found that overexpression of either RIG-I or MDA5 severely impaired BTV expression in infected A549 cells. Conclusion:These results suggest that the RIG-I-like (RLR) pathway is specifically engaged for IFN-␤ production following BTV infection and indicate that RIG-I and MDA5 can both contribute to its recognition and control.

One of the most commonly seeded crops in Canada is canola, a cultivar of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). As a mass‐flowering crop grown intensively throughout the Canadian Prairies, canola has the potential to influence pollinator success across tens of thousands of square kilometers of cropland. Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) are efficient pollinators of many types of native and crop plants. We measured the influence of this mass‐flowering crop on the abundance and phenology of bumble bees, and on another species of social bee (a sweat bee; Halictus rubicundus), by continuously deploying traps at different levels of canola cultivation intensity, spanning the start and end of canola bloom. Queen bumble bees were more abundant in areas with more canola cover, indicating that this crop is attractive to queens. However, bumble bee workers were significantly fewer in these locations later in the season, suggesting reduced colony success. The median collection dates of workers of three bumble bee species were earlier near canola fields, suggesting a dynamic response of colonies to the increased floral resources. Different species experienced this shift to different extents. The sweat bee was not affected by canola cultivation intensity. Our findings suggest that mass‐flowering crops such as canola are attractive to bumble bee queens and therefore may lead to higher rates of colony establishment, but also that colonies established near this crop may be less successful. We propose that the effect on bumble bees can be mitigated by spacing the crop more evenly with respect to alternate floral resources.

The New World species of Coproica Rondani, 1861 (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae) are reviewed on the basis of over 17,000 examined specimens. The genus is divided into three major clades: the C. acutangula, C. vagans, and C. urbana species groups. Eight new species (C. bifurcata, C. bispatha, C. brachystyla, C. diabolica, C. emarginata, C. galapagosensis, C. novacula, and C. testudinea) are described, and redescriptions are provided for eleven additional species. Included are two keys (one for the twenty New World species only and one for all described species), updated New World distribution records, and illustrations of male and female genitalic structures.

This catalog summarizes information on the species of Milichiidae known to occur in Colombia. It includes 6 described species in 3 described genera and 6 undescribed species in two genera, one of which is also undescribed.

Case 2917 Coproka Rondani, 1861 and Ischiolepta Lioy, 1864 (Insecta, Diptera): proposed conservation of usage by the designation of Limosina acutangula Zetterstedt, 1847 as tlie type species of Coproka