Pollination mutualism between Alocasia macrorrhizos (Araceae) and two taxonomically undescribed Colocasiomyia species (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in Sabah, Borneo

Two taxonomically undescribed Colocasiomyia species were discovered from inflorescences of Alocasia macrorrhizos in Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. The aims of this study were to investigate the reproductive ecology of the flies and the plant, ascertain the importance of the flies as pollinators and examine the intimate association between flowering events and life history of the flies. We conducted sampling, observations and field pollination experiments. The flies were attracted by the odour of female‐phase inflorescences in the early morning on the first day of anthesis. They fed, mated and oviposited in the inflorescences for 1 day. On the second day, the flies, covered with pollen grains, left the male‐phase inflorescences for the next female‐phase inflorescences. The immature forms of both fly species hatched, developed and pupated within the infructescences without damaging the fruits, and developed adults emerged when the mature infructescences dehisced. The flowering events and fly behaviours were well synchronized. In field pollination experiments, inflorescences bagged with a fine mesh (insect exclusion) produced almost no fruits, whereas those bagged with a coarse mesh (bee exclusion) produced as many fruits as the open‐pollinated controls. These results indicate that these flies are the most efficient and specialised pollinators for their host, A. macrorrhizos. These flies, in return, depend on A. macrorrhizos for food and habitat through most of their life cycle. This study provides a deeper insight into the less recognised, highly intimate pollination mutualism between Araceae plants and Colocasiomyia flies.     

Life history traits related to resource partitioning between synhospitalic species of Colocasiomyia (Diptera, Drosophilidae) breeding in inflorescences of Alocasia odora (Araceae)

Abstract.

• 1 Two closely related species of Colocasiomyia alocasiae (Okada) and C.xenalocasiae (Okada) (Diptera, Drosophilidae) breed in inflorescences of Alocasia odora C. Koch (Araceae), a hermaphroditic understorey clonal herb.
• 2 The two drosophilid species form a synhospitalic pair in Okinawa with alocasiae breeding in the upper half of the inflorescence and xenalocasiae breeding in the lower half.
• 3 C.alocasiae also has the following combination of life history traits: small body size, many eggs, and early reproductive maturity. In contrast, xenalocasiae can be described as having larger body size, fewer eggs, and delayed reproductive maturity.
• 4 Resource partitioning between the two species on the same host may be affected by these life history traits which are associated with their larval habitats.

     

Three new species of Mitrephora (Annonaceae) from Sabah, Malaysia

Three new species of Mitrephora (Blume) Hook. f. & Thomson, M. clemensiorum, M. vittata and M. woodii , are described from Sabah, Malaysia. Mitrephora clemensiorum is related to M. korthalsiana Miq., but is distinguished by having long inflorescences, long flowering and fruiting pedicels, and fruits with sessile monocarps. Mitrephora vittata is related to M. reflexa Merr., but has lanceolate, subcoriaceous leaves, and densely pubescent inflorescence rachides, flowering pedicels and bracts. Mitrephora woodii is similar to M. heyneana (Hook. f. & Thomson) Thwaites, but has smaller flowers and fruits with sessile monocarps     

Pollination mutualism between a new species of the genus Colocasiomyia de Meijere (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and Steudnera colocasiifolia (Araceae) in Yunnan, China

A new species of the genus Colocasiomyia de Meijere (Diptera: Drosophilidae) was discovered from inflorescences of Steudnera colocasiifolia K. Koch (Araceae) in Yunnan, China. The new species is described as Colocasiomyia steudnerae Takenaka and Toda, sp. nov., and we investigated the reproductive ecology of both the fly and the plant species. This fly species reproduces in the inflorescences/infructescences of the plant, and depends almost throughout its entire life cycle on the host plant. The fly species is the most abundant flower visitor for S. colocasiifolia and behaves intimately with the flowering events, suggesting that it is the unique and most efficient pollinator for the host plant. Bagging (insect‐exclusion) treatment of inflorescences resulted in no fruits. These findings strongly suggest that intimate pollination mutualism has evolved between the fly and the host plant, as are known in other Colocasiomyia flies and Araceae plants. One notable feature of this system is that the new species almost monopolizes the host‐plant inflorescence as a visitor, without any cohabiting Colocasiomyia species. In comparison to other cases where two Colocasiomyia species share the same inflorescence and infructescence of Araceae host plants for reproduction by separating their breeding niches microallopatrically between the staminate (upper male‐flower) and the pistillate (lower female‐flower) regions on the spadix, C. steudnerae exhibits a mixture of stamenicolous and pistillicolous breeding habits.     

Amiota sinuata species group from eastern Malaysia (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

Eight species of the Amiota sinuata species group are reported from eastern Malaysia, including six new species, A. bispinula, A. cerata, A. curvibacula, A. lambirensis, A. parviserrata and A. quadrifoliolata spp. nov. A key to Asian species of the group is provided.     

Taxonomy of the Colocasiomyia gigantea species group (Diptera,Drosophilidae), with descriptions of four new species from Yunnan,China

Species of the genus Colocasiomyia de Meijere feed/breed on inflorescences/infructescences of the plants from the families Araceae, Arecaceae and Magnoliaceae. Although most of them utilize plants from the subfamily Aroideae of Araceae, three species of the recently established C. gigantea species group make use of plants of the subfamily Monsteroideae. We describe four new species of the gigantea group found from Yunnan, China: Colocasiomyia longifilamentata Li & Gao, sp. n., C. longivalva Li & Gao, sp. n., C. hailini Li & Gao, sp. n., and C. yini Li & Gao, sp. n. The species delimitation is proved in virtue of not only morphology but also DNA barcodes, i.e., sequences of the partial mitochondrial COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) gene. Some nucleotide sites with fixed status in the alignment of the COI sequences (658 sites in length) are used as “pure” molecular diagnostic characters to delineate species in the gigantea group.     

Drosophila subpulchrella, a new species of the Drosophila suzukii species subgroup from Japan and China (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Drosophila (Sophophora) subpulchrella Takamori and Watabe, sp. nov., of the D. suzukii subgroup in the D. melanogaster species group, is described from Japan and southern China, and compared with its sibling species, D. pulchrella Tan et al. distributed in the Yun‐Gui Highland, south‐western China. The results of cross‐experiments show a complete pre‐mating isolation between D. subpulchrella and D. pulchrella.     

Colocasiomyia (Diptera: Drosophilidae) revised phylogenetically,with a new species group having peculiar lifecycles on monsteroid (Araceae) host plants

The phylogeny of Colocasiomyia (Drosophilidae) is analysed using data for 70 morphological characters, many of which are re‐evaluated from or added to those used previously, for an expanded taxon sample of 24 Colocasiomyia ingroup species. A special focus is put on three species, of which two have remained unresolved for their relationships to other Colocasiomyia species, and the other is a newly discovered species. The analysis results in a single, most parsimonious cladogram, in which a clade comprising the three focal species is recognized along with other clades recovered for the known species groups of Colocasiomyia. Based on this, a new species group—the gigantea group—is established, including Colocasiomyia gigantea (Okada), C. rhaphidophorae Gao & Toda, n.sp. and C. scindapsae Fartyal & Toda, n.sp. These species of the gigantea group breed on inflorescences/infructescences of the subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) exceptionally among Colocasiomyia species, most of which use plants of the subfamily Aroideae as their hosts. Colocasiomyia gigantea uses Epipremnum pinnatum (L.) Engler, C. rhaphidophorae uses Rhaphidophora hookeri Schott and C. scindapsae uses Scindapsus coriaceus Engler as their hosts. The host plants of the gigantea group are epiphytes and differ in the structure of spadix and the fruiting process from those of the Aroideae. To understand how the species of the gigantea group adapt to properties of their host plants, their reproductive ecology—most intensively that of C. gigantea—is investigated. The lifecycle of C. gigantea is characterized by its relatively slow embryonic development (taking approximately 6 days), the very long duration of the full‐grown first instar within the egg capsule (approximately three months) until dehiscence of host infructescence, and its relatively fast larval and pupal development (taking approximately 11 or 12 days). Some morphological adaptations and the reproductive strategy in terms of ‘egg size vs. number’ trade‐off are discussed in relation to their reproductive habits and peculiar lifecycles.     

拱背果蝇属三新种记述(双翅目:果蝇科)

记述了拱背果蝇属 (Lordiphosa)黑色拱背果蝇种组 (nigricolorspecies group) 3新种 :黑腿拱背果蝇 (Lordiphosanigrifemursp nov )、鲁甸拱背果蝇 (Lordiphosaludianensissp nov )和施氏拱背果蝇 (Lordiphosashiisp nov )。     

The Stegana (sensu stricto) species from China,with morphological and molecular evidence (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Four new species of the subgenus Stegana (sensu stricto) were found and described from China: S. (S.) antha sp. nov., S. (S.) latiorificia sp. nov., S. (S.) huangjiai sp. nov. and S. (S.) nigrifoliacea sp. nov. Three known Stegana (s. str.) species from China: S. (S.) antlia Okada, 1991, S. (S.) cheni Sidorenko, 1997 Sidorenko, V. S. (1997). New Asian species and new records of the genus Stegana Meigen (Diptera, Drosophilidae). I. Subgenera Oxyphortica Duda and Stegana s. str. Annales d la Société Entomologique de France (N. S.), 33, 65–79.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] and S. (S.) emeiensis Sidorenko, 1997 Sidorenko, V. S. (1997). New Asian species and new records of the genus Stegana Meigen (Diptera, Drosophilidae). I. Subgenera Oxyphortica Duda and Stegana s. str. Annales d la Société Entomologique de France (N. S.), 33, 65–79.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] are redescribed as supplementary information. A key to the species, based on morphological characters, is provided. The phylogenetic relationships among 14 species of the subgenus Stegana are reconstructed with the combined sequences of the mitochondrial genes, ND2 (NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2) and COI (cytochrome c oxidase, subunit I). Moreover, the intra- and interspecific pairwise K-2P (Kimura's two-parameter) distances among these species are summarized, and the availability of mitochondrial markers in the species identification of the subgenus Stegana are further discussed.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:368C55C3-B101-457C-BD61-BDD8F1B780E5     

Variation of wing shape in the Drosophila virilis species group (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Wing shape variation was analysed with geometric morphometric methods in 17 laboratory strains, representing 11 closely related species (including two subspecies) of the Drosophila virilis group: D. virilis, D. lummei, D. novamexicana, D. americana americana, D. americana texana, D. montana, D. lacicola, D. flavomontana, D. borealis, D. littoralis, D. ezoana and D. kanekoi. Overall shape estimated using Procrustes coordinates of 14 landmarks was highly variable among strains and very similar in females and males. The landmarks in the distal part of the wing showed higher variation across strains than those in the proximal part. Procrustes distances between species were not consistent with phylogenetic distances previously suggested for the virilis group. Moreover, Procrustes distances between strains within species and within two major phylads (virilis and montana) were comparable with those between species and between phylads, respectively. The most different from other members of the group was the endemic D. kanekoi species, currently viewed as separate subphylad within the montana phylad. Allometric effects were found to be partly responsible for shape differences between the strains. Three most significant shape transformations were considered using the relative warp analysis and the strains were ordinated in accordance with transformation values. The pattern of relative warp scores could be easily interpreted only for the third warp explaining about 13% of shape variation. It separated the largest species, D. montana, D. ezoana and D. kanekoi, from other ones and was mainly associated with shape changes in the proximal region of the wing. The results of the present work suggest that wing shape in the virilis species group is not related to the speciation process. The observed proximal‐distal contrasts and allometric effects are in agreement with data of other studies, in which wing shape variation was analysed within Drosophila species.     

New species and new records of Menegazzia (Parmeliaceae, lichenized ascomycetes) from Malaysia and Indonesia

The genus Menegazzia (Parmeliaceae, lichenized ascomycetes) in Malaysia and Indonesia is studied. Some specimens from Papua New Guinea are also included. The great majority of available specimens are from Kinabalu Park, State of Sabah, Malaysia. Three species are described as new to science, namely the two sorediate species M. capitata (from Sabah and Pahang in Malaysia) and M. sabahensis (from Sabah), and the fertile, primary species M. monospora (from Sabah and Papua New Guinea). M. asahinae , M. dissoluta , and M. efflorescens are reported for the first time from Malaysia, and M. subsimilis is reported for the first time from Malaysia and Indonesia. The subgenus Megamenegazzia is newly described to accommodate the large, broad-lobed species with numerous perforations on the lower surface. M. efflorescens is selected as the type species for the new subgenus. Notes are also provided on the type specimens of Hypogymnia pectinatula , a species originally considered as belonging to Menegazzia .  © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2007, 153 , 489–499.     

马来西亚蝗科及一新种记述（直翅目：蝗总科）

记述了采自马来西亚的蝗科6亚科22属30种,包括一新种Vitalisia bangiensus sp. nov.。 并首次发现和描述了Sedulia perakensis Willemse的雄性及Eucoptacra minima Ramme和Pagdenia rufipes Miller的雌性。还发现Meltripata bolivari Willemse 和Pagdenia rufipes Miller具二型：全翅型和退化翅型。提供了马来西亚已记录属和种的检索表。