Corethrella borkenti sp. n. is described, based on female and male adults, pupae and larvae, collected from tank bromeliads in the Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. The larva and pupa of C. alticola Lane, 1939 are described for the first time. New distributional records for C. alticola and C. vittata Lane, 1939 extend their distributions to the southern Atlantic Forest. A key to pupae of peruviana group is given.

Four new species of Corethrella are described from Brazil. Corethrella xokleng sp. n. and C. cambirela sp. n. are described from males and females, and Corethrella yanomami sp. n. and C. munteantaroku sp. n. are described from a female and male, respectively. Fourteen Corethrella species have new distributional records, with five of these being first records for Brazil. The number of valid species of Corethrellidae known from Brazil is increased from 37 to 46.

Larvae of soldier flies and their closest relatives (Diptera: Stratiomyomorpha) are important decomposers of organic material, including wood, that take part in carbon cycling. They also play a certain role in the modern-day animal and human food industry, representing economic value. Larvae of Stratiomyomorpha are considered to be rather rare in the fossil record. Indeed, only very few larvae have been reported so far. Here, we demonstrate that larvae of Stratiomyomorpha are in fact abundant in the Cretaceous, at least in Myanmar amber (about 100 million years old), based on more than 100 amber pieces containing larvae. The specimens could be differentiated into three morphotypes, two already described in a previous work, and a new one. For one morphotype, three larval stages could be distinguished by analysing the dimensions of the head capsules. A quantitative analysis of body shapes indicates a lower morphological diversity of the fossil sample in comparison to the extant fauna, but suggests that they might have had a different ecology in the past. It appears that the data set is not yet saturated, i.e., that more fossil larvae of this group, including different morphologies, are expected to be found.

No abstract

Corethrellids are hematophagous flies that locate their frog hosts by using their calls as an auditory cue. The attractiveness of frog calls to these insects has been associated with the complexity of the vocalisation or an evolutionary relationship between the fly and frog species. We investigated the possible preferences of a local Corethrella fauna for the calls of six anurans, three species of the genus Boana (Hylidae) and three Physalaemus (Leptodactylidae) species in the Atlantic Rainforest of southern Brazil. We recorded loops of the natural advertisement calls of the different frog host species, which we broadcast from acoustic traps consisting of modified CDC (Center for Disease Control) traps fitted with a speaker under the collecting system, but without a source of light. Nine species of hematophagous flies were captured during 360 h of trapping. Three of the species captured were new to Brazil, and two could not be identified and may represent new taxa. Two corethrellid species contributed 75% of the individuals captured and were present in all the acoustic traps, while three species were attracted to only one trap. The median richness and abundance of corethrellids varied significantly in relation to the different calls broadcast by the traps. These differences in the abundance and species richness of Corethrella in the traps indicate that the frog calls vary in their attractiveness to the hematophagous flies. A model-based analysis using mvabund also indicated that the frog species and genera that produced the calls used in an acoustic trap were a significant factor determining the composition of the Corethrella assemblages captured in that trap. The variation found in the Corethrella communities of southern Brazil may be explained not only by the acoustic traits of frog vocalisations but also by differences in the morphological and ecological characteristics of the frog species.