Diptera

Hayford, Barbara, Förster, Timo, Patel, Vivek N. & Chaboo, Caroline S., 2021, Aquatic flies (Diptera) in phytotelmata of Neotropical Zingiberales plants, Journal of Natural History 54 (43 - 44), pp. 2815-2838 : 2824

Diptera

We extracted 620 Diptera larvae and pupae from 34 of our 251 total phytotelmata samples. These larvae were identified to an estimated 22 morphospecies in 5 families of pleisiomorphic Diptera hereafter called ‘Nematocera’, two families of aquatic Brachycera, and one group of undetermined aquatic Brachycera families ( Table 2). We use a morphospecies concept here but some of these may be distinct species; the systematics of juvenile stages of Diptera in the Neotropics does not yet allow confident diagnosis of species without associated adults. Chironomidae (159 individuals, 3 species) were the numerically dominant family followed by Syrphidae (141 individuals, 3 species), and Psychodidae (81 individuals, 2 species). In one C. capitata sample (PER12-C1-TF092) from Peru we found 81 aquatic Diptera juveniles, the highest number of individuals in our samples and the highest number of morphospecies.

The Peru samples overall had greater diversity of aquatic Diptera (i.e. more morphospecies) than did the Costa Rica samples ( Table 3). The Costa Rica samples were dominated by Ceratopogonidae and Psychodidae and contained a relatively high number of Stratiomyidae . The Costa Rica samples lacked Chironomidae and Culicidae ( Table 3, Figure 3 ). In contrast, the Peru samples were dominated by Chironomidae and Syrphidae followed by undetermined Brachycera and Culicidae ( Figure 3 ). Community similarity of aquatic Diptera in the samples was high, exhibiting a distinct pattern supported by a cophenetic correlation coefficient of 0.94 and a low delta coefficient indicating congruence between the original data and the resulting dendrogram ( Figure 4 ). Most Diptera communities clustered by phytotelmata within plants or phytotelmata from nearby plants within a research site, but some communities within the same plant showed greater similarity to communities from other phytotelmata from other plants ( Figure 4 ). For example, communities from phytotelmata collected from one plant of Heliconia stricta located in the Villa Carmen Field Station were more similar to communities from phytotelmata collected from different plant species and regions than they were to other communities from the same plant ( Figure 4 ).

Figures

Figure 3. Pie charts depicting the relative abundance of Diptera families (620 individuals) collected and identified from Zingiberales phytotelmata in Costa Rica and Peru.

Figure 4. Dendrogram of a hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s method and Euclidian distances (cophenetic correlation coefficient = 0.81). The cluster analysis represents similarity between communities and community relationships between samples of aquatic Diptera collected from phytotelmata in Costa Rica and Peru. Each sample has been coded to provide information on sample sites such that: CR = Costa Rica, PR = Peru, Ccapitata = Calathea capitata (Ruiz & Pav.) Lindl., Hrobusta = Heliconia robusta Pax, Hrostrata = Heliconia rostrata Ruiz & Pavon, Htortuosa = Heliconia tortuosa Griggs, Hstricta = Heliconia stricta Huber, HYunilateralis = Hylaeanthe unilateralis (Poepp. and Endl.), Renealmia = Renealmia L.f. sp., Zing = Zingiberaceae, MRBN = Monteverde Reserve Bosque Nuboso, MRBNS = Monteverde Reserve Bosque Nuboso: Sendero Camino, MRBNT = Monteverde Reserve Bosque Nuboso: Tosi Tr before Chomogo, VCBS = Villa Carmen Biological Station, A2- 6 = different phytotelmata habitats within a single plant, B1- 6 = different phytotelmata habitats within a single plant. Plants were collected within flower bracts unless denoted by an LR = leaf roll.