Diptera Systematics

A cladistic and biogeographic analysis is presented of Heterostylum Macquart (Diptera:
Bombyliidae), a New World bee-fly genus with 14 species. A phylogenetic hypothesis was obtained
based on a data matrix with 27 characters, using the cladogram analysis and search
program, TNT, and the matrix editing and tree viewing program, WINCLADA. Character
states were polarized by tree rooting with the following outgroup taxa: Toxophora aurea
Macquart, Apiformyia australis Yeates, Triploechus novus Williston, T. bellus Philippi, and
T. heteronevrus Macquart. The monophyly of Heterostylum was well supported, and after
successive weighting was applied, 2 major clades were found: a Nearctic clade including
H. robustum (Osten Sacken), H. helvolum Hall & Evenhuis, H. deani Painter, H. croceum
Painter, and H. engelhardti Painter, and a Neotropical clade with H. haemorrhoicum (Loew),
H. rufum (Olivier), H. evenhuisi Cunha & Lamas, H. maculipennis Cunha & Lamas, H. ferrugineum
(Fabricius), H. hirsutum (Thunberg), and H. pallipes Bigot. For the biogeographic
analysis we derived an area cladogram based on the phylogenetic hypothesis obtained to
analyze the distributional pattern and spatial diversification of Heterostylum. The divergence
between Nearctic and Neotropical clades is associated with a spatial disjunction along
the Mexican Transition Zone, which supports evidence that an ancient Caribbean event was
mainly responsible for the diversification of major lineages of Heterostylum. This biogeographic
scenario, as well as alternative scenarios, was also analyzed and discussed along
with the results obtained from an event-based biogeographical analysis (DIVA ).

Conflicting hypotheses in phylogenetics and systematics, generated by different data sets (e.g. morphological versus molecular), are common in
biology. The clarification of such instances may allow understanding general mechanisms involved in the speciation process in an evolutionary
light. Here, we present and discuss the case of the Dolichopus plumipes species group in the long-legged flies, Dolichopodidae. A phylogenetic
survey was performed based on both morphological and molecular data. The full data set comprises 31 morphological characters and 2252
molecular characters (mitochondrial – COI: 810; 12S: 343; 16S: 514; nuclear – ITS2: 585) of 49 different species, represented by 82 specimens. The
molecular phylogenetic analysis revealed a clade (composed by the species D. plumipes, Dolichopus wahlbergi, Dolichopus polleti, Dolichopus
simplex, and Dolichopus nigricornis) that disagrees with the traditional morphological view based on external characters. In particular, specimens
of the species D. plumipes and D. simplex were indistinguishable with the molecular markers used here. Yet, we still consider D. plumipes and D.
simplex as two distinct taxa and provide explanatory hypotheses on the evolutionary background. The conspicuous male secondary sexual
characters (present in plumipes but not in simplex) are key factors in sexual selection and their presumably rapid reduction in D. simplex is thought
to be of main importance for the explanation of the speciation process. The plumipes–simplex case may therefore be viewed as a paradigmatic
illustration showing that a better integration of the molecular and morphological approaches is needed to understand and clarify the, in some
cases, complex systematics and phylogeny of organisms.

Colombia has an imposing natural wealth due to its topography has many unique characteristics as a consequence of having Caribbean and Pacific shores, as well as sharing part of the Amazon basin and northern Andes mountains. Thus, many natural and biological features are due to the convergence of three biogeographical regions: Pacific, Andes and Amazonia. The Andean uplift created a complex mosaic of mountains and isolated valleys, including eleven biogeographical provinces (Morrone 2006). The Andes dominate the Colombian topography and cross the country south to north. There are three mountain ranges (Western, Central, and Eastern) with a maximum elevation of 5,775 m, and an average elevation of 2,000 m. The Magdalena and Cauca River valleys separate these ranges, that along with the Putumayo and Caquetá Rivers, the Catatumbo watershed, the Darién, Pique Hill, the Orinoquia Region (with its savannas), the Amazon region (with tropical rainforests), and some lower mountain ranges (Macarena and Chiribiquete), have generated the conditions for very high levels of endemism. This variety of conditions has resulted in an extremely diverse plant and animal biota, and in which 48% of the nation remains unexplored. Biodiversity in Colombia is a world treasure, and therefore understanding it is the first step in preserving it. Understanding insect diversity is a challenge, due to the complexity of finding species in such a diverse biological and geological settings, as well as due to the difficulty in identifying the many, often undescribed, species. Historically, Colombia has had many entomologists that have strived towards documenting this diversity and today, continues to education new researchers for this far-from-finished goal. Though there is a long tradition of entomological studies, taxonomic knowledge of insects in Colombia remains fragmented, with the Lepidoptera probably being the best known. Much work remains for the identification of most species in the Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. These orders comprise nearly 70% of all known animal species in the country (Andrade, 1996, Amat et al. 1999, Fernández et al. 2004). Diptera in Colombia has mostly been studied in species that are relevant to health and forensic concerns, such as the Culicidae, Simuliidae, Tabanidae, and Calliphoridae. The more conspicuous flies, and larger families, including the Syrphidae, Asilidae and Bombyliidae, remain poorly known and poorly studied. Recently, efforts to collect in relatively undisturbed locations may be one of the main initiatives by the government and universities for better understanding these well-preserved areas and for conservation planning. Here, we provide a catalogue with the primary goal of providing information on Diptera diversity in Colombia. This catalogue is based on a combination of a review of the relevant literature with data from new species that will be presented here for the first time. All genus-and species-group names are listed alphabetically. Valid names are in bold type at the first mention. Synonyms when mentioned subsequently are italicized. Each published name including synonyms is given in a chronological sequence according to the scheme: the name of the species, author(s), year of description, page, genus in the original description (if different from the valid one), type-locality (or localities in the case of syntypes; updated name into brackets), information about the primary types and their deposition (and, if a lectotype, a reference to the author and date of the designation), known geographic distribution. The catalogue contains 3,135 species in 74 families from Colombia (Table 1). This adds another nine families to the Catalogue of the Diptera of the Americas South of the United States between 1966-1984 (edited by Nelson Papavero). Unfortunately, and highlighting the need for additional collecting, the families Dixidae,

Neriidae are a small family of acalyptratae flies, mostly distributed in the tropics. Very little is known about their biology, and the evolutionary relationships among species have never been evaluated. We perform the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the family, including 48 species from all biogeographic regions inhabited, as well as five species of Micropezidae and one Cypselosomatidae as outgroups. We build a morphological data matrix of 194 characters, including 72 continuous characters. We first explore ways to deal with the issue of scaling continuous characters, including rescaling ranges to unity and using implied weighting. We find that both strategies result in very different phylogenetic hypotheses, and that implied weighting reduces the problem of scaling, but only partially. Furthermore, using implied weighting after rescaling characters improves the congruence between partitions and results in higher values of group support. With respect to the Neriidae, we confirm the monophyly of the family and of most its genera, although we do not obtain any of the currently accepted suprageneric groups. We propose to restrict the Eoneria and Nerius groups exclusively to the Neotropical fauna, and synonymize Glyphidops subgenus Oncopsia Enderlein with Glyphidops subgenus Glyphidops Enderlein, eliminating the subgeneric divisions. This revised phylogeny presents a striking biogeographic consistency, and shows that previous main divisions of the family were based on events of convergence.

The uptdated Tabanidae’s list of the Ecuador was made being based to thebibliographical reference and the Jaime Buestán’s collection of tabanids, this collection has 8898 specimens. In this article 263 species arementioned, grouped in 29 Genera, 5 Tribes and 3 Subfamilies. By eachspecies when it is possible is provided with infomation of the places, height,number of specimens, dates of capture and collector. The markedspecies with asterisk (*) they are alone reported for the Ecuador andwith a cross (+) the new registries.

A new species of the Tipula subgenus Mediotipula is described from the southeastern part of Albania, southeastern Europe. Morphologically, the new species is most similar to T. (M.) stigmatella Schummel, 1833, but differs mainly with respect to males, having a distinctly shaped posterior margin of tergite 9–10, a widened outer gonostylus and a series of details of the inner gonostylus (anterior end of the anterior arm, shape of the posterior arm), as well as having more bulbous and rounded hypogynal valves in the females. Further morphological differences of the male terminalia between allopatric populations of T. (M.) stigmatella in the Carpathians and Balkans, southeastern Europe, are discussed.

Negrobov O.P., Fursov V.N., Selivanova O.V.  A new species of Dolichopus (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) from Japan. – Vestnik Zoologii (Kiev, Ukraine),  2014, Vol.48, № 5, P.471-474. (in English) — Dolichopus satoi Negrobov, Fursov et Selivanova, sp. n. is described from Japan and
compared with a closely related species, D. mediovenus Negrobov, 1977 which is recorded from Japan for
the first time. The pictures of morphological features of both species are given.