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Colonizing potential of Drosophilidae (Insecta, Diptera) in environments with different grades of urbanization

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Abstract

Modern environmental destruction through human action has had a big impact on biological diversity. In the Brazilian Cerrado, the second largest South American biome, more than 60% of the native vegetation has been devastated mainly due to anthropic activities. One of the consequences of these activities is the distinct dispersion patterns of endemic and colonizer species in urban environments. In this report we assess the colonizing potential of drosophilids in environments with different grades of urbanization, defined according to the vegetation cover, edifications and demographic density. We performed 12 monthly collections in the city of Brasília, the capital of Brazil, which is located in the core region of the Cerrado. Although we identified 16 species, 90% of the 22,509 captured specimens were Zaprionus indianus, a species recently introduced in Brazil, and the cosmopolitan D. simulans. We captured all the exotic species that occur in the Biome, with the exception of D. kikkawai, but only 8 from the 25 endemic species that occur in natural sites around Brasília. The abundance of four endemic species (D. nebulosa, D. sturtevanti, D. cardini and D. prosaltans) decreased as the grade of urbanization increased. D. immigrans, an exotic species, showed the opposite pattern. We concluded that most endemic species of Drosophilidae are not able to colonize the new environment represented by the city, and that some species of this family may detect not only environmental alteration, by their presence or absence, but also the grade of environmental disturbance, by their relative abundance.

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Abbreviations

RECOR/IBGE:

Roncador Ecological Reserve

NPB:

National Park of Brasília.

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  1. Departamento de Genética e Morfologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, GEM. CP 04457, CEP 70919-970, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Luzitano B. Ferreira & Rosana Tidon

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  1. Luzitano B. Ferreira
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  2. Rosana Tidon
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Correspondence to Rosana Tidon.

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Ferreira, L., Tidon, R. Colonizing potential of Drosophilidae (Insecta, Diptera) in environments with different grades of urbanization. Biodivers Conserv 14, 1809–1821 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-004-0701-4

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