Shore fly (Diptera: Ephydridae) communities from Ria de Aveiro, with new records for Portugal

Abstract

Saltmarshes are considered one of the most productive habitats in the world and exhibit a spatial zonation of its vegetation, from the intertidal flats to the seawall or dunes providing habitats to specific invertebrate assemblage adapted to regular submergence by seawater, and the resulting high soil salinity. These ecotones are essential to support coastal food webs and in providing nursery areas, for fish, crustaceans, and birds. Ria de Aveiro costal lagoon has been the focus of considerable research, but despite being part of Nature 2000 network, and being a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, insects have been systematically neglected. In this work we present new shore flies (Ephydridae) records from Ria de Aveiro saltmarshes, Portugal. Field collections were carried in seven locations along Ria de Aveiro saltmarshes areas by sweep-netting the dominating halophyte vegetation in September 2020. A total of 283 Ephydridae specimens from 8 genus and 17 species were collected. From these, 9 species are new records for Portuguese territory, 3 of them to the Iberian Peninsula. This work contributes to increase the dipterological knowledge regarding Ephydridae diversity in southern Europe, and to identify potential halophyte plant pests since several Ephydridae species are phytophagous.

Keywords

• Shore fly
• Saltmarshes
• Wetlands
• Ecotones
• Faunistic
• Iberian Peninsula