Diversity and associations between Drosophilidae (Diptera) species and Basidiomycetes in a Neotropical forest

Abstract

Drosophilidae is one of the most representative families of insects that occurs in fungal fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes; however, the diversity and community structure of mycophagous Drosophilidae in the Neotropical region is poorly known. The aims of the present study were to describe the diversity of mycophagous Drosophilidae and to investigate its colonization of fungal hosts in a forest of southern Brazil. From 120 fungal samples (patches of mushrooms) of 17 Basidiomycetes genera, fl ies were recorded emerging from 70 samples and collected in adult stages of 25 fungal samples, for a total of 4897 drosophilids belonging to 31 species and 5 genera. Drosophila Fallén was the most species-rich genus, whereas Hirtodrosophila Duda was the dominant genus. Studies performed in the Holarctic region indicate that mycophagous drosophilid have generalist habits; however, our results showed that most drosophilids use fewer than two fungal hosts, and most species of Hirtodrosophila and Leucophenga were restricted to abundant fungal species, suggesting a specialization for these resources. The most specialized fauna emerged from Auricularia, which was the most frequent fungal genus in our collection, and this result supports the assumption that specialization depends on the availability of fungal resources over time.

Diversity and host associations of dipteran insects exploiting fungal fruiting bodies in Hokuriku, central Japan

“…Valer et al . () observed that most species of fungal‐feeding Drosophila used only one or two fungal hosts in Brazil. Similarly, Põldmaa et al .…”

The flower flies and the unknown diversity of Drosophilidae (Diptera): a biodiversity inventory in the Brazilian fauna

“…It is reported that great numbers of adult flies of this genus can be found over bracket fungi in rainforests, but the kind of relation between flies and fungi is questionable. Undoubtedly, fungi actually represent breeding sites for some Zygothrica species (Grimaldi, 1987;Roque et al, 2006;Valer et al, 2016), but Grimaldi (1987) suggested that in many cases they are used only as rendez-vous sites. Indeed, several records for breeding sites in the genus are flowers, although they are reported only for a few species (Grimaldi, 1987;Fonseca et al, 2017).…”

Hirtodrosophilaof North America (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

“…Hirtodrosophila morgani is known from central to southern Brazil (Robe et al, 2014: states of Bahia, Paraná, Rondônia, and Santa Catarina) and may even occur in Argentina (Misiones) . In one study from Brazil it was found breeding primarily in Auricularia (Auriculariaceae) (Valer et al, 2016). Interestingly, ecological niche modeling based on the Brazilian records (Robe et al, 2014) predicts the occurrence of H. morgani throughout southern Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia and Peru, western Ecuador, a small portion of central Venezuela, much of Central America and Hispaniola.…”