Checklist of the flower flies of Ecuador (Diptera, Syrphidae)

Abstract

Syrphidae is one of the most speciose families of true flies, with more than 6,100 described species and worldwide distribution. They are important for humans acting as crucial pollinators, biological control agents, decomposers, and bioindicators. One third of its diversity is found in the Neotropical Region, but the taxonomic knowledge for this region is incomplete. Thus, taxonomic revisions and species checklists of Syrphidae in the Neotropics are the highest priority for biodiversity studies. Therefore, we present the first checklist of Syrphidae for Ecuador based on literature records, and provide as well the original reference for the first time species citations for the country. A total of 201 species were recorded for Ecuador, with more than 600 records from 24 provinces and 237 localities. Tungurahua, Pastaza, and Galápagos were the best sampled provinces. Although the reported Ecuadorian syrphid fauna only comprises 11.2 % of the described Neotropical species, Ecuador has the third highest flower fly diversity density after Costa Rica and Suriname. These data indicate the high species diversity for this country in such small geographic area.

Revision of the Neotropical hoverfly genus Peradon Reemer (Diptera, Syrphidae, Microdontinae)

“…Both the label of the holotype and the description of Hull (1944) only mention Brazil (Rio Putumayo) as type locality. This is also discussed by Marín-Armijos et al (2017).…”

Inferring trends in pollinator distributions across the Neotropics from publicly available data remains challenging despite mobilization efforts

“…For example, there is almost a complete absence of data in Venezuela and Paraguay, which is known to reflect a lack of monitoring (Montoya et al, 2012). There are also data on hoverfly occurrences from Colombia (Montoya, 2016), Brazil (Borges and Couri, 2009), Ecuador (Marín-Armijos et al, 2017) and Chile (Barahona-Segovia et al, 2021) that are yet to be digitized.…”

First records of the genus Aristosyrphus Curran, 1941 (Diptera, Syrphidae) from Ecuador

“…Consequently, it is not surprising that in a megadiverse country like Ecuador (Mittermeier et al 2005), a species-rich family like Syrphidae is underexplored and poorly collected (Amorim 2009). Marín-Armijos et al (2017) reviewed the literature records of Ecuadorian syrphids and listed 201 species belonging to 51 genera and subgenera. They concluded that the syrphid fauna in Ecuador is far from being completely known.…”