Diversity of drosophilid flies on Kume-jima, a subtropical island: comparison with diversity on Iriomote-jima

The drosophilid fauna was studied on Kume‐jima, a subtropical island located in the central part of the Ryukyu archipelago, and compared with the fauna of Iriomote‐jima located near the south‐western end of the archipelago. The number of species collected from Kume‐jima was 37, much fewer than that recorded from Iriomote‐jima (95 species). The number of subtropical species was particularly reduced on Kume‐jima, possibly owing either to this island being more distantly located from the sources of subtropical species (e.g. Taiwan) than Iriomote‐jima and/or to winter temperature on Kume‐jima being a little lower (by approximately 1.5°C). The number of fungus‐feeders was also much reduced on Kume‐jima, but the number of fruit‐feeders was only slightly reduced. On Kume‐jima, fungi seem to be less abundant because forests are smaller, resulting in a smaller number of fungus‐feeders. Habitat selection and seasonality were analyzed for species collected using “retainer” type traps baited with banana. For species occurring on both islands, habitat selection differed little between the two islands, whereas the seasonality of some species differed markedly between the two islands.