<strong>Opportunity in our Ignorance: Urban Biodiversity Study Reveals 30 New Species and One New Nearctic Record for <em>Megaselia</em> (Diptera: Phoridae) in Los Angeles (California, USA)</strong>

Abstract

An urban biodiversity study sampling primarily from private backyards in Los Angeles, California (USA), reveals the presence of fifty-six species of Megaselia within the first few months of sampling. Thirty of these are described as new to science:

Mystery mushroom malingerers: Megaselia marquezi Hartop et al. 2015 (Diptera: Phoridae)

“…Among over 42,000 phorid flies collected by BioSCAN project in Los Angeles (Hartop et al 2015) , Megaselia marquezi was the sixth most commonly collected species, occuring in all but two sites in our study. Its occurrence is most highly correlated to that of M. berndseni (Schmitz, 1919), a species also known to breed in the fungus Psathyrella candolleana in Europe (Table 1).…”

“…Meanwhile, a large inventory project in Los Angeles has led to an unprecedented knowledge of the urban phorids of this city (Brown and Hartop 2016, Hartop et al 2015, Hartop et al 2016a, Hartop et al 2016b). About 100 species, mostly of Megaselia , are known from Los Angeles, but many were new to science and had nothing known of their lifestyle.…”

Hidden in the urban parks of New York City: Themira lohmanus, a new species of Sepsidae described based on morphology, DNA sequences, mating behavior, and reproductive isolation (Sepsidae, Diptera)

“…However, recent urban biodiversity scans have questioned this assumption and demonstrated that highly urbanized areas can contain significant numbers of hidden species. For example, the 2015 BioSCAN Malaise-trap study carried out in Los Angeles (California, USA) uncovered 40 new species in the mega-diverse Phoridae (Diptera) genus Megaselia Rondani, 1856 (Hartop et al 2015, 2016). We recently discovered a new species of Themira Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Diptera: Sepsidae) within New York City in Central Park and Prospect Park (New York, USA; hereafter, NYC).…”

Flies from L.A., The Sequel: A further twelve new species of Megaselia (Diptera: Phoridae) from the BioSCAN Project in Los Angeles (California, USA)

“…This makes big finds inevitable, and big finds are big news; the description of 30 new species and one new Nearctic record from the BioSCAN project in urban Los Angeles (Hartop et al 2015) prompted extensive media coverage. Major news outlets worldwide, from NBC to The New Yorker, picked up on the news.…”

“…Truthfully, the authors were not surprised to find dozens of new species in Los Angeles: this was a predicted problem and opportunity (Hartop et al (2015). The original paper did not tell the whole story, however, as it was based on only 10,000 phorids collected over the first 3 months of the BioSCAN project.…”