Three new Drosophilidae species records for South Africa

Abstract

Background: Data on the current species diversity from the Drosophilidae family in South Africa is limited or outdated.Objectives: Using haphazard, limited trapping for a different study, we serendipitously report on and document Drosophilidae species in two distinct regions (representing a sub-tropical and a Mediterranean climate region) of South Africa.Method: Drosophilidae were trapped using mixed fruit and mushroom traps around urban areas in two climatically distinct regions of South Africa. The flies were identified using standard barcoding (Cytochrome c Oxidase Subunit I [COI] gene sequence) and, in some cases, additional identification from a taxonomical expert using morphological traits. Species were checked against literature, online resources and a previously compiled library of South African Drosophilidae to determine whether they were new records.Results: Thirteen species were readily collected and identified. Of these, three species (Drosophila ananassae, Drosophila nasuta and Zaprionus taronus) have not been reported previously in South Africa. One of the species (Z. taronus) was captured in a home garden, while the other two species were captured in an urban-agricultural region with a sub-tropical climate.Conclusions: From our limited serendipitous sampling, three new species records have been found in sub-tropical climates in South Africa. With more comprehensive, systematic sampling, a better understanding of the South African Drosophilidae composition, and thus the detection of alien or invasive species, can be pursued. Baseline data for understanding spatio-temporal patterns of native biodiversity, or for informing management actions in the case of alien or invasive species, are currently inadequate for this group in the region.

Exploring thermal flight responses as predictors of flight ability and geographic range size in Drosophila

“…Species were identified using the Universal cytochrome oxidase I (COI) primers (LCO1490 and HCO2198; Folmer et al, 1994) by Inqaba Biotech™ and the South African Sugarcane Research Institute's (SASRI) biotechnology department. Five species identifications were confirmed in NCBI using BLAST (Altschul et al, 1997;de Araujo et al, 2019) and a further two species were also confirmed by a drosophilid taxonomist (Shane McEvey, Australian Museum Research Institute).…”

“…Sub-Saharan Drosophila species occupancy or distribution records, and thus, potential thermal microenvironment use, are poorly characterized and in many cases outdated or unknown (see e.g. De Araujo et al, 2019). Therefore, to assign a relative geographic distribution to each species, and because we could not sample species from sufficiently diverse environments within South Africa to characterize their relative distributions and thermal niches using climate databases (e.g.…”

Flight-reproduction trade-offs are weak in a field cage experiment across multiple Drosophila species

“…Drosophilidae were sampled from six locations in the Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal Provinces, South Africa (described in De Araujo et al. , 2019a ).…”

“…To eliminate maternal effects and field effects (e.g., acclimatization or recent thermal history), flies captured were reared under constant controlled conditions in the laboratory for at least two generations with ad libitum food availability until any experimental procedure was conducted. Flies were either reared at 23 °C ( Drosophila busckii Coquillett, 1901 , D. immigrans Sturtevant, 1921 and D. simulans Sturtevant, 1919) or 24–25 °C ( Drosophila ananassae Doleschall, 1858 and D. melanogaster Meigen, 1830) to better reflect optimal growth temperatures for species from the main environment's sampled ( Table 1 , De Araujo et al. , 2019a ).…”

Seasonal Dynamics of Fruit Flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in Natural Parks of Moscow City, Russia

“…Numerous studies have explored the fauna and ecology of Drosophilidae in urban areas globally, including Brazil [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], Uruguay [ 23 , 24 ], the USA [ 25 , 26 , 27 ], Ireland [ 28 ], the Netherlands [ 29 ], France [ 30 ], South Africa [ 31 , 32 ], Japan [ 33 , 34 ], and others. In Russia, some studies have investigated the fauna and ecology of drosophilids in urban areas [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ], but research on their abundance and species richness fluctuations in natural city parks is lacking.…”