Diversity of Drosophilidae (Insecta, Diptera) in the Restinga forest of southern Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Although members of Drosophilidae are frequently the topic of ecological studies in Brazil, few have explored Restinga or, until only recently, Pampa biome environments. This study proposes to describe the diversity and temporal variation of the Drosophilidae assemblage from a Restinga forest of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We performed monthly collections from February 2013 to January 2014 using yeasted banana-baited traps. A total of 25,093 individuals of 46 species were sampled. Drosophila simulans and the D. willistoni subgroup were the dominant taxa; D. polymorpha, D. immigrans, D. paraguayensis and Zygothrica orbitalis were of intermediate abundance, and the other 40 species were rare. Based on sampling effort estimators, our collections were sufficient. Jaccard and Morisita indices evaluated using ANOSIM reveal little similarity in the composition of samples across months. Canonical correspondence analysis shows that the variables of maximum and minimum temperature are the main factors responsible for differentiation of the species composition of the assemblage throughout the year, whereby collections in the coldest periods (July, August and September) are those with a more differentiated composition. In these months, the dominance of D. simulans and the D. willistoni subgroup decreases while increased abundance of the D. tripunctata group (as D. paraguayensis) and Z. orbitalis occurs. In comparison to other studies carried out in environments in southernmost Brazil, we observed a similar pattern of fluctuation in abundance over the year, with a higher abundance of dominant species in warmer months and population sizes decreasing in colder months.