Occurrence of the Drosophila flavopilosa species group (Diptera, Drosophilidae) in the state of São Paulo (Brazil) with description of one new species

Abstract

The traditional method of collecting Drosophila by baiting with fermented fruits never or rarely yields adult specimens of the flavopilosa group, which may be collected by sweeping Oestrum bushes or by breeding them out of their flowers. Having this in mind and following the suggestion of Dr. D. Brncie, I started, in 1978, searching for blooming Oestrum plants in the hope that I could find specimens of the flavopilosa group which had never been collected in the State of Sao Paulo.In May of 1982, I finally found in the vicinities of Santa Izabel (SP) one blooming tree of Oestrum intermedium Sendtn. (Solanaceae). Many branches bearing 2,835 flowers in several stages of development were broken off the plant and kept in eight bottles of 250 ml containing moist sand and plugged with gauze-wrapped cotton.Emerged flies were removed daily for examination. The male and female genitalia were the main characters used to distinguish among the Drosophilidae species. No attempts were made to identify the microhymenoptera and non-drosophilid Diptera specimens which were also reared from the flowers.

Breeding sites of Neotropical Drosophilidae (Diptera): IV. living and fallen flowers of Sessea brasiliensis and Cestrum spp. (Solanaceae)

“…D. mariaehelenae presented a low percentage of emergence (1.82%) and also emerged from all plant species, although C. sendtnerianum was the preferred resource host plant. D. mariaehelenae was described by Vilela (1984) (Table IV), however, the former species emerged in high frequencies in the colder and wetter months, whereas the latter was the most common species in hot and dry periods (Sepel et al 2000).…”

“…Ex Roem. & Schult., C. schlechtendalii G. Don, and C. tomentosum L. f., have been recognized as host plants of seven out of twelve described species of the flavopilosa group (Brncic 1966(Brncic , 1978Vilela 1984;Hunter 1992;Vilela & Pereira 1992;Sepel et al 2000). They are as follows: D. acroria Wheeler & Takada in Wheeler et al 1962, D. cestri Brncic, 1978, D. cordeiroi Brncic, 1978, D. flavopilosa Frey, 1919, D. hollisae Vilela & Pereira, 1992, D. incompta Wheeler & Takada in Wheeler et al 1962, and D. mariaehelenae Vilela, 1984.…”

“…In Brazil, six species of Drosophila of the flavopilosa group, namely D. cestri, D. cordeiroi, D. flavopilosa, D. hollisae, D. incompta, and D. mariaehelenae (Brncic 1978;Napp & Brncic 1978;Hofmann & Napp 1984;Vilela 1984;Hofmann 1985;Vilela & Pereira 1992;Sepel et al 2000).…”

Dos nuevas especies del grupo Drosophila onychophora (Diptera, Drosophilidae) en los bosques de Polylepis de Papallacta, Pichincha, Ecuador

“…La mayoría de los individuos de las dos especies fueron capturadas en una sola estación de muestreo, probablemente en este lugar existe un microhábitat propicio para estas especies de drosófilas. Las dos especies nuevas del grupo D. onychophora fueron recolectadas utilizando trampas de banano y levadura, a diferencia de los otros miembros del grupo que fueron capturados directamente en flores de asteráceas (PiPKin et al, 1966;Vilela, 1984). Es posible que, por lo menos, D. yurag sp.…”

The male terminalia of seven American species of Drosophila (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

“…Two males belonging to this species emerged from living flowers of Cestrum intermedium Sendtn. (Solanaceae) collected by the author in 1982 in the municipality of Santa Isabel, state of São Paulo, Brazil (Vilela 1984). However, at that time, the author was unable to identify those males to species level, and they were just mistakenly cited as "unidentified species of tripunctata group" (see also Santos and Vilela 2005 (Fig.…”