Sensitivity analysis, molecular systematics and natural history evolution of Scathophagidae (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha: Calyptratae)

The 60 000 described species of Cyclorrhapha are characterized by an unusual diversity in larval life-history traits, which range from saprophagy over phytophagy to parasitism and predation. However, the direction of evolutionary change between the different modes remains unclear. Here, we use the Scathophagidae (Diptera) for reconstructing the direction of change in this relatively small family ( 250 spp.) whose larval habits mirror the diversity in natural history found in Cyclorrhapha. We subjected a molecular data set for 63 species (22 genera) and DNA sequences from seven genes (12S, 16S, Cytb, COI, 28S, Ef1-alfa, Pol II) to an extensive sensitivity analysis and compare the performance of three different alignment strategies (manual, Clustal, POY). We find that the default Clustal alignment performs worst as judged by character incongruence, topological congruence and branch support. For this alignment, scoring indels as a fifth character state worsens character incongruence and topological congruence. However, manual alignment and direct optimization perform similarly well and yield near-identical trees, although branch support is lower for the direct-optimization trees. All three alignment techniques favor the upweighting of transversion. We furthermore confirm the independence of the concepts ‘‘node support’’ and ‘‘node stability’’ by documenting several cases of poorly supported nodes being very stable and cases of well supported nodes being unstable. We confirm the monophyly of the Scathophagidae, its two constituent subfamilies, and most genera. We demonstrate that phytophagy in the form of leaf mining is the ancestral larval feeding habit for Scathophagidae. From phytophagy, two shifts to saprophagy and one shift to predation has occurred while a second origin of predation is from a saprophagous ancestor

Sazonalidade de três espécies de Syrphidae (Insecta, Diptera) capturadas com armadilha Malaise no Estado do Paraná, Brasil Seasonality of three species of Syrphidae (Insecta, Diptera) collected with Malaise traps in Paraná State, Brazil

<abstract language="eng">The project "Survey of the Entomolo-gical Fauna in Paraná" (PROFAUPAR) was carried out in eight localities of Paraná, Brazil, during two years. In the first year a total of 1.607 specimens of Syrphidae were collected with Malaise trap. The species Toxomerus tibicen (Wiedemann, 1830), Microdon milis Curran, 1940 and Leucopodella gracilis (Williston, 1891) were the most abundant. The abundance and seasonality of each species are evaluated

Espécies mais abundantes de Syrphidae (Diptera) em dois anos de coletas com armadilhas Malaise no Estado do Paraná, Brasil Most abundant species of Syrphidae (Diptera) collected during two years with Malaise traps in Paraná, Brazil

Durante dois anos de coleta (1986 a 1988) do Projeto de Levantamento da Fauna Entomológica do Paraná (PROFAUPAR) em oito localidades do Estado, foram coletados 3316 indivíduos da família Syrphidae, sendo 1607 no primeiro ano e 1709 no segundo. Cinco espécies (Toxomerus procrastinatus Metz, Toxomerus tibicen (Wiedemann), Microdon mitis Curran, Leucopodella gracilis (Williston) e Paramicrodon flukei (Curran) destacaram-se pelos níveis de abundância alcançados, num total de 1554 indivíduos. São discutidas as distribuições sazonais de abundância de cada uma destas espécies.<br>During two years (1986 to 1988) of the project "Survey of the Entomological Fauna in Paraná" (PROFAUPAR) carried out in eigth localities of Paraná, Brazil, 3,316 specimens belonging to Syrphidae were collected, 1,607 in the first year and 1,709 in the second. Five species were most collected in a total of 1,554 specimens and their seasonality are evaluated: Toxomerus procrastinatus Metz, Toxomerus tibicen (Wiedemann), Microdon mitis Curran, Leucopodella gracilis (Williston) and Paramicrodon flukei (Curran)