Submitted to: Revista Brasileira Debiologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: September 30, 2003
Publication Date: January 30, 2004
Citation: Prado, P.I., Norrbom, A.L., Lewinsohn, T.M. 2004. New species of tomoplagia (diptera: tephritidae) from capitula of asteraceae in brazil.. Revista Brasileira Debiologia. 33: 189-211
Interpretive Summary: Fruit flies include some of the world's most important pests of fruit and vegetable crops, but the majority of the more than 4,000 known species are not crop pests at this time. However they are very important components of their ecosystems and have considerable effects on populations of their host plants. Some species (e.g., the apple maggot) have become important models for studies of evolutionary processes or ecological relationships. The fruit fly species breeding in flowers of Asteraceae (sunflowers and relatives) in southern Brazil are a major focus of a large ecological study of insects that feed inside plants. Twelve new species that have been discovered are described in this paper so that information about their distributions and host relationships can be communicated. Some of them are restricted to small areas on mountain chains. The results of this paper will be important to ecologists, insect identifiers, taxonomists and conservationists.
Technical Abstract:
Twelve new species of Tomoplagia reared from capitula of Asteraceae collected in southern and southeastern Brazil are described (T. aczeli, T. achromoptera, T. bicolor, T. brasiliensis, T. cipoensis, T. dimorphica, T. grandis, T. interrupta, T. matzenbacheri, T. rupestris, T. variabilis, and T. voluta). Five of these species have highly atypical wing markings, differing from the usual pattern for the genus, which includes five oblique yellow bands. Aberrant wing patterns were previously known in only three species. All the new species were reared from capitula of Vernonieae, confirming this Asteraceae tribe as the main host group of Tomoplagia species. Of these new species, five are specialists on the Lychnophorinae, a Vernonieae subtribe endemic to campo rupestre vegetation, which occurs on tops of mountain chains in central and southeastern Brazil. These species of Tomoplagia are probably restricted to the small ranges of these host plants.
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