A new species of Pseudacteon Coquillett (Diptera, Phoridae) and a new key to the European species

Disney, R. H. L.; Withers, Phil

doi:10.3161/00159301ff2009.52.1.001

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…For example, Brown (1996) reported that nearly half of the species of ant-parasitising scuttle flies were caught exclusively over army ant raids. Similar results were obtained by Disney et al (1982), who found some species of scuttle flies were uniquely or primarily collected in water traps rather than Malaise traps. Another possible frontier is the canopy.…”

Section: Diversitysupporting

confidence: 87%

Resolving Biology’s Dark Matter: Species Richness, Spatiotemporal Distribution, and Community Composition of a Dark Taxon

Hartop,

Lee,

Srivathsan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Background: Biology's dark matter is found in hyperdiverse, poorly known taxa that are numerically dominant and yet largely unstudied, even in temperate regions of the globe where charismatic taxa are already well understood. Biology's dark matter is everywhere, but identification impediments caused by high diversity, abundance, and small size have historically stymied its study. We here show how entomological dark matter can be converted from dark to reasonably well known by using high-throughput DNA barcoding ("megabarcoding"). We reveal the surprisingly high abundance and diversity of scuttle flies (Diptera: Phoridae) across Sweden by processing 31 800 specimens from 37 sites across four seasonal time-periods. We ask how many scuttle fly species are likely to occur in Sweden and what environmental factors are driving community changes between seasons and across the country. Results: We find that Swedish scuttle fly diversity is much higher than previously known, with 549 mOTUs (putative species) detected, compared to only 374 species recorded previously. Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities reveals that scuttle fly communities are highly structured by latitude, and strongly driven by climatic (including temporal) factors. The large dissimilarities between sites and seasons are largely driven by turnover rather than nestedness (i.e. local differences in species richness). We predict that climate changes are likely to greatly affect the 29% of the species that show a positive and the 18% of species that show a negative response to mean annual temperature. Surprisingly, these results were robust regardless of whether we used haplotype diversity or species-proxies (mOTUs: molecular Operational Taxonomic Units) as response variables. Furthermore, species-level models of common taxa adequately predict overall species richness. Conclusions: Understanding the bulk of the diversity around us is imperative during an era of biodiversity loss and we here show that dark insect taxa can be efficiently characterised and surveyed with megabarcoding. Furthermore, we show that undersampling of rare taxa and the choice of operational taxonomic units do not change the main ecological inferences, so that the time appears rife for tackling biology's dark matter.

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Section: Diversitysupporting

confidence: 87%

Resolving Biology’s Dark Matter: Species Richness, Spatiotemporal Distribution, and Community Composition of a Dark Taxon

Hartop,

Lee,

Srivathsan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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show abstract

“…The new species is easily recognized in having 4 very strong pin-shaped bristles on abdominal sternite VI and transverse-inclined long hairs on ventral plate of ovipositor sheath. In the key to European Pseudacteon (Disney & Withers 2009), the species runs to couplet 6, to P. fennicus Schmitz. It differs from the latter by 4 very strong, pin-shaped bristles on sternite VI and 12-16 fine, long and transverse-inclined hairs on ventral plate of ovipositor sheath.…”

Section: Descriptions Of New Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remarks. In the key to European Pseudacteon (Disney 2009), the species runs to couplet 6, to P. fennicus Schmitz. It differs from the latter in having an obtuse process on dorsal plate of ovipositor sheath.…”

Section: Pseudacteon Obtusatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to intensive studies, at present 65 Pseudacteon species have been described worldwide, of which 52 from the Neotropical and Nearctic Regions. In the Palaearctic Region, 12 species have been reported, which are covered by Disney (2000), Disney and Michailovskaya (2000) and Disney and Withers (2009). Pseudacteon javensis (Brues) is the only species reported from the Oriental Region (Brues 1915) and P. crinifer Beyer is distributed only in the Australian Region (Beyer 1966).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The ant-parasitizing genus <i>Pseudacteon</i> Coquillett (Diptera: Phoridae) from China with description of three new species

Liu¹,

Wang²,

Caì³

2013

Entomol. Fennica

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Studies in European ant-decapitating flies (Diptera: Phoridae): ant alarm pheromone as host finding cue inPseudacteon brevicauda, a parasite ofMyrmica rubra(Formicidae: Myrmicinae)

Witte

Disney

Weissflog

et al. 2010

Journal of Natural History

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A new species of Pseudacteon Coquillett (Diptera, Phoridae) and a new key to the European species

Cited by 6 publications

References 6 publications

Resolving Biology’s Dark Matter: Species Richness, Spatiotemporal Distribution, and Community Composition of a Dark Taxon

Resolving Biology’s Dark Matter: Species Richness, Spatiotemporal Distribution, and Community Composition of a Dark Taxon

The ant-parasitizing genus <i>Pseudacteon</i> Coquillett (Diptera: Phoridae) from China with description of three new species

Studies in European ant-decapitating flies (Diptera: Phoridae): ant alarm pheromone as host finding cue inPseudacteon brevicauda, a parasite ofMyrmica rubra(Formicidae: Myrmicinae)

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