Drosophilidae (insecta, diptera) do cerrado : relações faunísticas, distribuição geográfica e vulnerabilidade das espécies

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

The insects of the family Drosophilidae (Insecta, Diptera) are excellent biological models, and they were intensively studied in several disciplines. The study of these flies in Brazil began in the 19th century, and had a great advance from 1940s. Nevertheless, there is still a big gap on the ecology of these animals. The Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) is the second largest domain in South America, one of the richest savannas of the world and has a great natural diversity. Studies on the drosophilids of this domain were sparse until the end of the 1990s, when there was an intensification of research. Thus, the purposes of this study were to analyze the geographic distribution of drosophilids in the Brazilian morphoclimatic domains, to verify the similarity among them, and to assess the gaps of knowledge, with emphasis on the Cerrado domain. Additionally, it was estimated an index of vulnerability (Iv) for the neotropical species recorded in the domain. For that, it was organized a database with information available in scientific papers published from the early 20th century to 2007, which contains the locations of collections with geographical coordinates, the domain of occurrence and, for the Cerrado domain, the phytophisiognomy where the species were collected. The 292 species of drosophilids registered are distributed in 17 genera. The domain with the greatest richness was the Atlantic Forest, with 236 species registered, distributed in 14 genera. The greatest fauna similarity occurred among the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest and the Araucária domain. The 257 collection sites are unevenly distributed, concentrated in the Atlantic Forest (44.7%), and in the State of São Paulo (19.8%). In Cerrado, eight genera were recorded, with 91 neotropical (none endemic) and 10 exotic species. The collections are concentrated primarily in the States of Goiás (including the Federal District) and Minas Gerais, and the Serra do Cipó is the site with the greatest richness of insects in this domain. Among the 78 neotropical species that have their vulnerability assessed, 39 (50%) are considered highly vulnerable because they have narrow distribution and occur in only one or a few types of vegetation. Moreover, seven species were classified as not vulnerable, because they are widespread in the domain and they have the ability to live in different types of phytophisiognomies. The absence of endemic species for the Cerrado should be considered with caution, because extensive areas of the domain were not appropriately sampled for drosophilids and the majority of researches used only banana baited traps to collect flies. The spatial distribution of drosophilids reinforces the need to preserve the spatial heterogeneity of Cerrado. With the increase in the collection and identification efforts, focusing priority areas and studying breeding sites, the list of species should increase significantly.

ASSUNTO(S)

biodiversidade espécies exóticas morphoclimatic domains conservação domínios morfoclimáticos drosophila exotic species drosophila endemism ecologia gap of knowledge endemismo brazilian savanna biodiversity conservation lacunas de conhecimento savana brasileira

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