Revista Brasileira de Entomologia (Nov 2023)

The SISBIOTA-Diptera Brazilian Network: A long-term survey of Diptera from unexplored Brazilian Western Arc of Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal

  • Carlos José Einicker Lamas,
  • Diego Aguilar Fachin,
  • Rafaela Lopes Falaschi,
  • Daniel Máximo Correa de Alcantara,
  • Rosaly Ale-Rocha,
  • Dalton de Souza Amorim,
  • Maíra Xavier Araújo,
  • Sharlene Ascendino,
  • Letícia Baldassio,
  • Carolina Ferraz Bellodi,
  • Freddy Bravo,
  • Julia Calhau,
  • Renato Soares Capellari,
  • Antonio Marcelino do Carmo-Neto,
  • Bianca Melo Cegolin,
  • Márcia Souto Couri,
  • Claudio José Barros de Carvalho,
  • Rodrigo de Vilhena Perez Dios,
  • Aida Vanessa Gomez Falcon,
  • Livia Maria Fusari,
  • Carolina de Almeida Garcia,
  • Leonardo Henrique Gil-Azevedo,
  • Marina Morim Gomes,
  • Gustavo Graciolli,
  • Filipe Macedo Gudin,
  • Augusto Loureiro Henriques,
  • Tiago Kütter Krolow,
  • Luanna Layla Mendes,
  • Francisco Limeira-de-Oliveira,
  • Valéria Cid Maia,
  • Luciane Marinoni,
  • Ramon Luciano Mello,
  • Cátia Antunes de Mello-Patiu,
  • Mírian Nunes Morales,
  • Sarah Siqueira Oliveira,
  • Claudemir Patiu,
  • Barbara Proença,
  • Cristiane Vieira de Assis Pujol-Luz,
  • José Roberto Pujol-Luz,
  • José Albertino Rafael,
  • Paula Raile Riccardi,
  • João Paulo Vinicios Rodrigues,
  • Fabio de Oliveira Roque,
  • Maria Anice Mureb Sallum,
  • Marcelo Domingos de Santis,
  • Charles Morphy Dias dos Santos,
  • Josenilson Rodrigues dos Santos,
  • Marcoandre Savaris,
  • Paloma Helena Fernandes Shimabukuro,
  • Vera Cristina Silva,
  • Daniel de Castro Schelesky-Prado,
  • Alberto Moreira da Silva-Neto,
  • Alexssandro Camargo,
  • Viviane Rodrigues de Sousa,
  • Maria Virginia Urso-Guimarães,
  • Sofia Wiedenbrug,
  • Carolina Yamaguchi,
  • Silvio Shigueo Nihei

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9665-rbent-2023-0051
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 67, no. 4

Abstract

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ABSTRACT The SISBIOTA-BRASIL was a three-year multimillion-dollar research program of the Brazilian government to document plants and animals in endangered/understudied areas and biomes in Brazil. Distributional patterns and the historical events that generated them are extensively unknown regarding Brazilian fauna and flora. This deficiency hinders the development of conservation policies and the understanding of evolutionary processes. Conservation decisions depend on precise knowledge of the taxonomy and geographic distribution of species. Given such a premise, we proposed to research the diversity of Diptera of the Brazilian western arc of Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Rondônia. Three important biomes of the South American continent characterize these Brazilian states: Amazon forest, Cerrado (Brazilian Savannah), and Pantanal. Besides their ecological relevance, these biomes historically lack intensive entomological surveys. Therefore, they are much underrepresented in the Brazilian natural history collections and in the scientific literature, which is further aggravated by the fact that these areas are being exponentially and rapidly converted to commercial lands. Our project involved over 90 collaborators from 24 different Brazilian institutions and one from Colombia among researchers, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students, and technicians. We processed and analyzed nearly 300,000 specimens from ~60 families of Diptera collected with a large variety of methods in the sampled areas. Here, we provide a detailed overview of the genera and species diversity of 41 families treated. Our results point to a total of 2,130 species and 514 genera compiled and identified for the three states altogether, with an increase of 41% and 29% in the numbers of species and genera known for the three states combined, respectively. Overall, the 10 most species-rich families were Tachinidae, Cecidomyiidae, Tabanidae, Psychodidae, Sarcophagidae, Stratiomyidae, Bombyliidae, Syrphidae, Tephritidae, and Asilidae. The 10 most diverse in the number of genera were Tachinidae, Stratiomyidae, Asilidae, Mycetophilidae, Syrphidae, Tabanidae, Muscidae, Dolichopodidae, Sarcophagidae, and Chloropidae. So far, 111 scientific papers were published regarding taxonomic, phylogenetic, and biogeographical aspects of the studied families, with the description of 101 new species and three new genera. We expect that additional publications will result from this investigation because several specimens are now curated and being researched by specialists.

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