Checklist of the dipterofauna (Insecta) from Roraima, Brazil, with special reference to the Brazilian Ecological Station of Maracá

Abstract

Roraima is a Brazilian state located in the northern portion of the Amazon basin, with few studies regarding its biodiversity. The Ecological Station of Maracá (Brazil, state of Roraima) harbors the third largest Brazilian pluvial island and is composed of a transitional landscape of savanna and Amazon rainforest components. Despite its ecological importance and strategic localization, few studies covered the dipterofauna of this locality. An updated checklist addressing 41 families of true flies (Diptera) occurring in Roraima is presented based on the literature and the specimens collected during a field expedition that occurred in 2015. This checklist brings several improvements such as new records of 165 taxa to the state of Roraima, 29 taxa to Brazil, and 259 morphotypes, mostly likely representing undescribed species.

Succession of medico-legal important flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) in the temporal gradient of pig decomposition in the Brazilian Cerrado

“…Peckia ( S .) tridentata has been recorded in the two largest biomes of the Neotropical region, namely the Cerrado and the Amazon Rainforest 19 , 23 , 40 , 57 , 59 – 61 . This observation implies a more limited potential for its role as an indicator within these particular biomes.…”

Survey of the families Anthomyzidae, Aulacigastridae, Odoniidae, Periscelididae, and Trichoceridae (Insecta: Diptera)

“…The family is considered monophyletic and is divided into two subfamilies Odiniinae and Traginopinae There are records of 39 species in 11 genera for the Neotropical region. Of these, 24 species of nine genera are known to Brazil; Only one species was previously known from Roraima [36][37][38][39].…”

“…During the dry and rainy period, 1379 dipterans from the suborder Brachycera were captured, divided into 28 families, which are: Agromyzidae (1), Calliphoridae (2), Chloropidae (14), Clusiidae (5), Drosophilidae (138), Dolichopodidae (203), Ephydridae (25), Hybotidae (10), Lauxaniidae (32), Lonchaeidae (5), Micropezidae (27), Milichiidae (39), Muscidae (20), Neriidae (3), Periscelididae (10), Phoridae (463), Richardiidae (9), Ropalomeridae (4), Sarcophagidae (45), Sepsidae (8), Syrphidae (11), Sphaeroceridae (175), Stratiomyidae (64), Tabanidae (12), Tachinidae (25), Ulidiidae (26), Xylomyidae (3). Collections in the dry period were less abundant compared to the rainy period.…”

Whole genome sequence of a long-legged fly Condylostylus longicornis from Hawaiʻi

“…Long-legged flies of the family Dolichopodidae represent one of the most species-rich families of the insect order Diptera (Bickel, 2009). The largest number of species is found in the New World tropics (Brown et al, 2018;Pollet et al, 2018;Runyon, 2020;Riccardi et al, 2022), but many species are also present in other regions of the world, and some have been described as tramp species thriving in their non-native ranges (Bickel, 1991;Naglis and Bickel, 2017;Riccardi et al, 2022). Most long-legged flies are predators (Figure 1), and some species are able to hunt common agricultural pests and disease vectors, including mosquitoes (Laing and Welch, 1963), bark beetles (Beaver, 1966) and other insects (Kautz and Gardiner, 2019), making them potential agents of biological pest control.…”