The Effect of Anthropization on Sarcophagidae (Diptera: Calyptratae) Community Structure: An Assessment on Different Types of Habitats in the Humid Chaco Ecoregion of Argentina

Abstract

Sarcophagidae (Diptera) are of great interest from a veterinary, medical, and forensic viewpoint, and are potential bioindicators for environmental impact assessments. In this study, we evaluated changes in abundance, species richness, and diversity of flesh flies in different habitat types in the Humid Chaco ecoregion of South America: 1) anthropized habitats: urban, cattle farm, and alfalfa crop, and 2) natural habitats: savanna and forest. We hypothesized that sarcophagid fly community parameters are affected by the anthropization and that spatial turnover will contribute more to the overall beta diversity than nestedness between habitats. In each habitat, samplings were conducted monthly from March 2015 to February 2016 in 25 sites, 5 per habitat, totaling 300 independent samples at the end of the study. We collected 5,790 Sarcophagidae (55 species). Community parameters of Sarcophagidae were evaluated and compared. The ecological effects of anthropization and habitat type were observed in the present study. As expected, our results showed the highest abundance, species richness, and diversity in the savanna and forest habitats (natural), whereas the lowest values were registered in the urban and alfalfa crop habitats, supporting the hypotheses of anthropization as the main driver of diversity loss. In addition, sarcophagid assemblages differed between all habitats and the overall dissimilarity was structured by spatial turnover. The main conclusion of this research is that flesh fly community structure is greatly affected by anthropization and habitat type, and this would be related to canopy cover and microclimate conditions of each environment.

Infrared spectroscopy and forensic entomology: Can this union work? A literature review

“…Environmental FE deals with the use of insects as auxiliary tools in investigations of environmental crime [40], including deforestation, neglect, or inadequate management of conservation units [41], biopiracy and illegal animal trafficking [42], illegal hunting, and animal abuse [43,44]. According to Nakaza et al [41], environmental FE is feasible for the use of expert crime activities against the environment, since entomological data can assist in the identification of environmental changes of anthropogenic origin [45–50].…”

“…| 2085 biopiracy and illegal animal trafficking [42], illegal hunting, and animal abuse [43,44]. According to Nakaza et al [41], environmental FE is feasible for the use of expert crime activities against the environment, since entomological data can assist in the identification of environmental changes of anthropogenic origin [45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

Scavengers flesh flies (Diptera, Sarcophagidae) from two phytophysiognomies in the state of Maranhão, Northeastern of Brazil

“…They can be insect parasitoids, predators of dying scorpions and insects, cause myiasis in birds and mammals, and scavengers of dead vertebrates and invertebrates. As a result, this is one of the most abundant species used in ecological and forensic studies (Alves et al 2014a, b, Vasconcelos et al 2015, Sousa et al 2016, Souza & Zuben 2016, Dufek et al 2020a. There was no difference in abundance between open habitats and riparian forests in Cerrado areas, as expected for a species with high ecological plasticity (X 2 = 0.0611, df = 1, p = 0.434, Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test) (Figure 2).…”

“…The vegetation is denser in the riparian forest, with small and large trees growing close together under compact canopies (Castro et al 2012, Kuntschik et al 2014. Because riparian forests are an intermediate environment between the open Cerrado and more highly forested areas, species from both habitats can be found there (Silva et al 2017, Dufek et al 2020a). As a result, these environments are critical for the preservation of biodiversity, as well as serving as ecological corridors between many types of habitats (Silva et al 2017).…”

Occurrence of kleptoparasitic sarcophagid flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae: Miltogramminae) in natural and human modified sites in Southern South American Andean landscapes

“…Among Diptera, the family Sarcophagidae displays extraordinarily diversified life histories including parasitic species (e.g., parasitoids, kleptoparasites, myiasis producers) and groups whose larvae are scavengers in a wide variety of substrates of animal origin (e.g., dung feeders, large carrion of vertebrates, or small remains of invertebrates) (Brown et al, 2010;Marshall, 2012). The latter groups of species, typically called sarcosaprophagous, are usually more intensely sampled than the parasitic species, because they are more abundant in ecological studies that use baited traps to collect them and because of their role as forensic indicators or pest species (e.g., Linhares, 1981;Pereira de Sousa et al, 2016;Dufek et al, 2020). By contrast, parasitic species of Sarcophagidae, and particularly kleptoparasites, are strikingly neglected in the literature.…”