New carrion-visiting flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) from tropical dry forests of Colombia and their phylogenetic affinities.

New carrion-visiting flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) from tropical dry forests of Colombia and their phylogenetic affinities. Acta Trop. 2020 Sep 29;:105720 Authors: Buenaventura E, Valverde-Castro C, Wolff M Abstract Many flesh flies of the subfamily Sarcophaginae are very competitive carrion visitors and breeders, and several are synanthropic species of medical and forensic importance. The knowledge of these taxa is still limited, which is more noticeable in sub-sampled ecosystems such as the tropical dry forests of Colombia. Four new species, Blaesoxipha (Gigantotheca) wajiira sp. nov., Lepidodexia deborarangoa sp. nov., Oxysarcodexia luriza sp. nov. and Udamopyga iku sp. nov., are described from tropical dry forests in the Colombian provinces of Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar and La Guajira, all collected using Van Someren-Rydon traps baited separately with fermented fruit, decomposing fish and human feces. The species B. (G.) wajiira sp. nov. is probably synanthropic, while the remaining three new species avoid habitats in and around built-up areas. A phylogenetic parsimony analysis based on 222 morphological characters across 121 taxa of flesh flies recovers each new species nested within their respective genus. The subgeneric affiliation of L. deborarangoa sp. nov. within the large and diverse genus Lepidodexia (sensu lato) is inconclusive, and potential issues of relying solely on external morphological characters for gener...
Source: Acta Tropica - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Acta Trop Source Type: research