Five new species of the Drosophila tripunctata group (Diptera: Drosophilidae) from Podocarpus National Park, Ecuador

Ana Danitza Peñafiel-Vinueza,Violeta Rafael

doi:10.5852/ejt.2019.494

Ana Danitza Peñafiel-Vinueza, Violeta Rafael

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2019.494

Copy DOI

Abstract

Five new species of the genus Drosophila Fallén, 1823 belonging to the tripunctata group are described and illustrated: D. warmi sp. nov., D. kurillakta sp. nov., D. chichu sp. nov., D. saraguru sp. nov. and D. ayauma sp. nov. from the forests of Podocarpus National Park. The first species is ascribed to subgroup II of Frota-Pessoa (1954), the second species to subgroup IV, and the last three species are not assigned to any subgroup. The flies were captured using plastic bottles containing pieces of yeast fermented banana.

Highlights

The tripunctata group of Drosophila Fallén, 1823 was proposed by Sturtevant (1942)
We describe five new species of Drosophila belonging to the tripunctata group: D. warmi sp. nov., D. kurillakta sp. nov., D. chichu sp. nov., D. saraguru sp. nov. and D. ayauma sp. nov
Drosophila warmi sp. nov. is very similar to D. cuaso Bächli, Vilela & Ratcov, 2000; there are some differences in the aedeagus

Summary

Introduction

The tripunctata group of Drosophila Fallén, 1823 was proposed by Sturtevant (1942). The group is endemic to the Neotropical Region where it represents the second largest species group, surpassed only by the D. repleta species group (Vilela 1992). Subgroup III has some species that are transitional to the cardini group. Throckmorton (1975) proposed a pattern of radiation of Drosophila that included the tripunctata group, as well as the D. calloptera Freire-Maia & Pavan, 1949, D. cardini Sturtevant, 1942, D. rubifrons Patterson & Wheeler, 1942, D. guarani Dobzhansky & Pavan, 1943, D. macroptera Patterson, 1943, D. pallidipennis Patterson & Stone, 1952 and D. sticta Clayton & Wheeler, 1975 species groups. Phylogenetic studies made by Hatadani et al (2009) included several species of the tripunctata, guarani and other closest species groups. Their results did not support the European Journal of Taxonomy 494: 1–18 (2019)

Methods

Results

Conclusion