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A black fly or blackfly is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 species of black flies have been formally named, of which 15 are extinct. They are divided into two subfamilies: Parasimuliinae contains only one genus and four species; Simuliinae contains all the rest. Over 1,800 of the species belong to the genus Simulium.
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Howardula aoronymphium is a species of nematode that infects specialist mushroom-feeding fruit flies such as Drosophila falleni and Drosophila neotestacea. Mated female nematodes pierce the fly larva cuticle and take up residence in the hemolymph where they mature alongside the fly. When the adult fly ecloses, the nematode motherworm has reached full size and sheds juvenile nematodes into the hemolymph which are eventually excreted by either the fly anus or ovipositor. Howardula nematodes can severely impact fly egg development, as infection can effectively sterilize some species.
Drosophila neotestacea is a member of the testacea species group of Drosophila. Testacea species are specialist fruit flies that breed on the fruiting bodies of mushrooms. These flies will choose to breed on psychoactive mushrooms such as the Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria. Drosophila neotestacea can be found in temperate regions of North America, ranging from the north eastern United States to western Canada.
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Jaenimonas drosophilae is a trypanosomatid parasite of mushroom-feeding flies, first characterized in Drosophila neotestacea and Drosophila falleni. Jaenimonas takes up residence in the gut of the fly, and infection leads to reduced fecundity of its fly host. The species is named for John Jaenike, a prominent ecologist and evolutionary biologist whose work on mushroom-feeding flies laid the foundation for studies on mycophagous Drosophila.
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Drosophila phalerata is a species of mushroom-feeding fruit fly in the Drosophila quinaria species group. The genome of D. phalerata was sequenced in 2019 as part of a study on the evolution of immune systems, but was not assembled de novo.
Allantonematidae is a family of insect-parasitic nematodes from the order Tylenchida. Allantonematid nematodes infect a variety of insects including beetles, butterflies, flies, thrips, ants, and more. For instance, the nematode Howardula aoronymphium parasitizes mushroom-feeding fruit flies, Formicitylenchus oregonensis parasitizes carpenter ants, and Metaparasitylenchus hypothenemi parasitizes a pest of coffee beans, the coffee berry borer.
Lutzomyia longipalpis is a species complex of sandfly belonging to the family Psychodidae. This species is primarily present in Central and South America, but has also appeared in Mexico. There have been reports of L. longipalpis as far south as Argentina, as they are found in a wide variety of ecological conditions. Both males and females feed on sugars from plants and aphids, but only adult females feed on the blood of other mammals. The species has recently begun appearing in urban areas throughout Brazil, and serves as a key vessel for the propagation of the parasite Leishmania infantum. The presence of these flies appears to be strongly correlated to the presence of domestic chickens in Latin America. The first major urban outbreak of the lethal Visceral leishmanias epidemic was detected in Teresina, Piauí State in the early 1980s following a massive planting of acacias.
References
- ↑ Grimaldi D. (1985). "Niche separation and competitive coexistence in mycophagous Drosophila (Diptera: Drosophilidae)". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 87 (3): 498–511.
- ↑ Bunyard B. (2003). "Biodiversity and ecology of mycophagous Diptera in Northeastern Ontario". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 105 (4): 847–58.
- ↑ Jaenike J, Anderson TJC. (1992). "Dynamics of host-parasite interactions: the Drosophila–Howardula system". OIKOS. 674 (3): 533–40. doi:10.2307/3545172. JSTOR 3545172.
- ↑ Cevallos, James A.; Okubo, Ryo P.; Perlman, Steve J.; Hallem, Elissa A. (2017). "Olfactory Preferences of the Parasitic Nematode Howardula aoronymphium and its Insect Host Drosophila falleni". Journal of Chemical Ecology. 43 (4): 362–373. doi:10.1007/s10886-017-0834-z. PMC 5673469 . PMID 28315996.
- ↑ Hill, Tom; Koseva, Boryana S; Unckless, Robert L; Singh, Nadia (13 March 2019). "The genome of Drosophila innubila reveals lineage-specific patterns of selection in immune genes". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 36 (7): 1405–1417. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msz059 . PMC 6573480 . PMID 30865231.