First Records of the Invading Species Drosophila Nasuta (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in the Amazon.

Invading species pose a growing threat to biodiversity, ecosystemic systems, regional economies, and public health. In recent decades, South America has received five exotic drosophilids species, some of which have invaded natural ecosystems and caused harm to agriculture. The most recent case is the Asian fly Drosophila nasuta Lamb. In the present study, we record D. nasuta in the Amazon, which is the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest in the world. Sampling of drosophilids was carried out between 2012 and 2017 in the Brazilian state of Pará. Drosophila nasuta was first detected on 1st July 2017, with 145 individuals of this species sampled among the 11,496 drosophilids caught. Although at low abundance, D. nasuta was recorded in forest fragments, anthropized fields, and urban environment. The records of the species occurred in the six municipalities of the state of Pará investigated at locations separated by approximately 700 km. In less than 10 years, D. nasuta has occupied approximately 2.5 million km2 in South America. The present findings assist in understanding the susceptibility of tropical forests to biological invasions.

Biodiversity loss along a gradient of deforestation in Amazonian agricultural landscapes.

Assessing how much management of agricultural landscapes, in addition to protected areas, can offset biodiversity erosion in the tropics is a central issue for conservation that still requires cross-taxonomic and landscape-scale studies. We measured the effects of Amazonia deforestation and subsequent land-use intensification in 6 agricultural areas (landscape scale), where we sampled plants and 4 animal groups (birds, earthworms, fruit flies, and moths). We assessed land-use intensification with a synthetic index based on landscape metrics (total area and relative percentages of land uses, edge density, mean patch density and diversity, and fractal structures at 5 dates from 1990 to 2007). Species richness decreased consistently as agricultural intensification increased despite slight differences in the responses of sampled groups. Globally, in moderately deforested landscapes species richness was relatively stable, and there was a clear threshold in biodiversity loss midway along the intensification gradient, mainly linked to a drop in forest cover and quality. Our results suggest anthropogenic landscapes with high-quality forest covering >40 % of the surface area may prevent biodiversity loss in Amazonia.

A new Amazonian species from the Drosophila annulimana species group (Diptera, Drosophilidae) / Uma nova espécie amazônica pertencente ao grupo de espécies Drosophila annulimana (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

Drosophila caxiuana sp. nov., Drosophila subgenus, is described and illustrated. This new species was collected in the Amazonian Biome (Caquajó river, Portel, Pará, Brazil) and is an atypical species to the group due the unusual morphology of the male terminalia.

Drosophila caxiuana sp. nov., subgênero Drosophila, é descrita e ilustrada. Essa nova espécie foi coletada no Bioma Amazônico (Rio Caquajó, Portel, Pará, Brasil) e é uma espécie atípica deste grupo devido à morfologia incomum da terminália masculina.