New records and expansion of the geographic distribution of gall inducers of the family Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) associated to Andira Lam. (Fabaceae) species in Brazil

Abstract

Santo and Fernandes, 2007). and Lima and Calado (2020) showed the overlap in the distribution of the host plant and the gall inducer, which allows us to infer that the distribution of the gall inducer cecidomyiids species are circumscribed to the host plant distribution. The geographical occurrence of gall inducers may not be uniform due to several factors, including variation in natural plant composition and geographical position, especially in the North-South axis, with latitude-related variations (Skuhravá and Skuhravý, 2009).The genus Andira Lam. belongs to Fabaceae, one of the richest families of the world with 3,033 species and in Brazil, with 1,578 species (Pennington, 2003). Andira has 29 species in the tropical regions of America, 20 of them confirmed in all Brazilian regions. Andira species occur in Amazonia, Caatinga, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest phytogeographic domains. They are very diverse and occupy various habitats such as Caatinga, Campinarana, Cerrado, Riparian Forest, Amazon flood forests, Dry Seasonal Forests, Ombrophile Forest, Restinga, as well as anthropized areas. They have habits such as shrubs and trees that grow in different soil fertility conditions, from nutrient-rich soils to poor rocky soils (Ramos et al., 2020).Currently, four species of cecidomyiids are known inducing galls