Abstract
Drosophilidae is one of the most representative families of insects that occurs in fungal fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes; however, the diversity and community structure of mycophagous Drosophilidae in the Neotropical region is poorly known. The aims of the present study were to describe the diversity of mycophagous Drosophilidae and to investigate its colonization of fungal hosts in a forest of southern Brazil. From 120 fungal samples (patches of mushrooms) of 17 Basidiomycetes genera, flies were recorded emerging from 70 samples and collected in adult stages of 25 fungal samples, for a total of 4897 drosophilids belonging to 31 species and 5 genera. Drosophila Fallén was the most species-rich genus, whereas Hirtodrosophila Duda was the dominant genus. Studies performed in the Holarctic region indicate that mycophagous drosophilid have generalist habits; however, our results showed that most drosophilids use fewer than two fungal hosts, and most species of Hirtodrosophila and Leucophenga were restricted to abundant fungal species, suggesting a specialization for these resources. The most specialized fauna emerged from Auricularia, which was the most frequent fungal genus in our collection, and this result supports the assumption that specialization depends on the availability of fungal resources over time.
Highlights
A variety of insects colonize fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes fungi; Drosophilidae is usually the most representative family because the flies use these bodies for feeding, mating and breeding sites (Bunyard 2003, Courtney et al.1990, Shorrocks and Charlesworth 1980, Toda et al 1999)
The drosophilid assemblage was not sampled to saturation, our sampling approach was sufficiency (Fig. 2) because we recovered 90% of the 29 drosophilid species predicted by the bootstrap analysis
We provided valuable information on the diversity of Basidiomycetes resources used by drosophilid species in the Neotropical region
Summary
A variety of insects colonize fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes fungi; Drosophilidae is usually the most representative family because the flies use these bodies for feeding, mating and breeding sites (Bunyard 2003, Courtney et al.1990, Shorrocks and Charlesworth 1980, Toda et al 1999). Mycophagy in Drosophilidae is most likely derived from detritivorous feeding habits and may have arisen several times during their evolution (Throckmorton 1975) This habit is possibly synapomorphic in the genera Hirtodrosophila Duda, Mycodrosophila Oldenberg and Zygothrica Wiedemann (Grimaldi 1987) and. Mycophagy is more labile, and fungi represent only a fraction of the resources used Such behavior can be observed in species of Zygothrica, which can be found in fungi and flowers, or Drosophila, which may use a wide range of hosts, such as cacti, flowers, sap, fruits and fungi (Carson 1971, Markow and O’Grady 2008)
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