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CANPOLIN
Research on Diptera
Pollinators
J.H. Skevington, S.A. Marshall, M.M. Locke, A.D. Young, G.F.G.
Miranda, F.C. Thompson
Diptera Pollinators • Key to Pollenia
(Calliphoridae) completed
• Several papers on
Conopidae
• Most projects on Syrphidae
• Pollenia in particular are important shoulder season pollinators
• Six species, all introduced
• Larvae are parasitoids or predators of earthworms (also introduced)
• Publication: Jewiss-Gaines, A., Marshall, S.A. & Whitworth, T.L. 2012. Cluster flies (Calliphoridae: Polleniinae: Pollenia) of North America. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification 19: 1-22.
Calliphoridae
• Specialized pollinators
• Most play a more significant role as parasitoids of bees
• Work on global phylogenetics of family led by Joel Gibson
• Revision of Nearctic species underway by Trevor Burt
Conopidae
• Gibson, J.F. and Skevington, J.H. 2013. Phylogeny and taxonomic revision of all genera of Conopidae (Diptera) based on morphological data. Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society 167: 43-81.
• Gibson, J.F., Skevington, J.H. and Kelso, S. 2013. A phylogenetic analysis of relationships among genera of Conopidae (Diptera) based on molecular and morphological data. Cladistics 29: 193-226.
• Gibson, J.F., Skevington, J.H. and Kelso, S. 2010. Placement of the Conopidae (Diptera) within the Schizophora based on ten mtDNA and nrDNA gene regions. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56: 91-103.
• Mei, M., Gibson, J.F. and Skevington, J.H. 2010. Observations on hilltopping in the Conopidae (Diptera). Journal of Insect Science 10(27): 1-15.
• Gibson, J.F., Skevington, J.H. and Camras, S. 2013. Conopidae (Diptera). In Biodiversidad de Artrópodos Argentinos. Edited by L.E. Claps et al. Sociedad Entomológica Argentina. pp. in press.
• Skevington, J.H., Thompson, F.C. and Camras, S. 2010. Conopidae (Thick-headed Flies). In: Manual of Central American Diptera. Edited by B.V. Brown et al. INBio, San Jose. pp. 847-855.
Conopidae Publications
• Importance as predators of aphids has long been recognized
• Global decline in pollinators has increased profile of this family
• Recent funding focuses on this group of flies – NSERC Canpolin
– iBOL, AAFC
Syrphidae Research
• Locke & Skevington
• 10 valid NE species historically
• Two conflicting sets of species concepts
• Tested these with COI and ITS2 data
• Morphological characters subtle, many variable
• 13 species recognized and defined
• intrudens complex resists understanding
Revision of Nearctic Dasysyrphus
• Young, Marshall & Skevington
• Male taxonomy relatively robust, but key is focused on males
• Only 13 species of females could formerly be identified
• Associating males and females using COI mtDNA
• 55 species of females can now be keyed out (of 76 spp.)
• 5 new Nearctic records
• 3 new species
Review of Nearctic Platycheirus
Revision of Nearctic Volucella • Complicated morphologically by high levels of
apparent variation on a global scale
• Currently 31 species synonymized as V. bombylans
• 4 Nearctic
species, 1
new
• Variation in
amount of
orange
• Cheng and
Skevington
V. evecta
V. facialis
V. arctica
V. n. sp.
• Sommaggio and Skevington
• 23 Nearctic names, 13 valid species, 2 new species
• We found new characters
• For example, mesonotal roughness
• Added molecular data
• Checked all types
• Completed a workable key
• Publication expected 2015
Revision of Nearctic
Chrysotoxum
• Miranda, Marshall & Skevington
• Nearly 400 species
• Genus not monophyletic
• Explored phylogeny of species groups with multiple genes and morphology
• Proposed new classification
• Revising species groups one by one, 1st revision submitted
Revision of New World Ocyptamus
Flower Fly keys - CJAI
• Miranda, Young, Locke, Marshall, Skevington & Thompson
• Starting with a generic key
• Not necessarily dichotomous
• Richly illustrated
• To be followed by modular species keys
• Will ultimately enable ID of all Nearctic species via microscope
Field guide to Syrphidae
of NE North America
• 407 species
• Using best models from published field guides
• Colour photos, maps, and brief notes on each species
• Sample pages at canacoll.org
Dasysyrphus venustus
Databasing Syrphidae • Inventory of CNC Diptera complete and online
• CNC Syrphidae primary types photographed (407)
• 144,392 Syrphidae databased at CNC (~88% of 165,000 specimens; expected to finish in 2014)
• 2,377 Syrphidae specimens databased at University of Alberta (all)
• 20,704 Syrphidae databased
at University of Guelph (all)
• 10,216 specimens
databased at ROME (all)
• Specimen data to be
published online by 2015
(http://www.cnc-ottawa.ca/taxonomy/SpecSearch.php)
Databasing
• Database used for most of the typical things:
– Producing material examined lists
– Exploring phenology
– Examining geographical patterns
– Vouchering
– Linkage of specimens with photos, tissue collection, molecular data, etc.
• Also have produced predictive maps of current distribution and species distribution change over time for Nearctic syrphid species
Status Report on Canadian
Syrphidae • 490 Canadian syrphid species evaluated
• 223 species secure, 177 sensitive, 25 may be at risk
• 9 species are introduced, 53 could not be assessed
(lack of data), 3 are accidental (vagrants)
Eristalis brousii
• Disappearance of E. brousii linked to hybridization with introduced E. arbustorum
• In the north, E. brousii is clinging to existence in coastal barrens
• Climate change may threaten this last stronghold
• Efforts to conserve E. brousii should likely focus on the far northern edge of its range and in montane habitats above the elevational range of E. arbustorum
At Risk
Building a COI database • Will allow identification of all
life stages and association of
sexes
• Useful tool to assist with
revisionary systematics
• Provides an additional
dataset for phylogenetic
analyses
• >1,700 syrphid species in
dataset
• Along with more user
friendly keys, helps to
remove borders from
taxonomy
World Syrphidae Phylogeny
• Assembling molecular phylogeny of
World Syrphidae
• Using 7 genes (COI, AATS, CAD,
28s, 18s, Period, HSP) as core
• Have finished >300 species, goal is
to include >1000 species
• Will use anchored phylogenetic
techniques to build 400 gene matrix
for ~200 species
• Develop phylogenetic hypotheses
relating all world genera and many
of the world’s species
Exploration of Imperfect Mimicry Penney, Hassall, Skevington, Abbott & Sherratt
• Many syrphids are near
perfect mimics of particular
models
• However, hundreds of
species converge on a
generalized model of a
wasp but are not exact
• Several hypotheses about
how this evolved
• We found that only one
(size) fit data collected
• Published in Nature
Syrphidae Publications
• Locke, M.M. and Skevington, J.H. 2013. Revision of Nearctic Dasysyrphus Enderlein
(Diptera: Syrphidae). Zootaxa 3660(1): 1-80.
• Miranda, G.F.G., Marshall, S.A. and Skevington, J.H. 2013. Revision of the genus
Pelecinobaccha Shannon, description of Relictanum gen. nov., and redescription of
Atylobaccha flukiella (Curran, 1941) (Diptera: Syrphidae). Zootaxa In press.
• Miranda, G.F.G., Young, A.D., Locke, M.M., Marshall, S.A., Skevington, J.H. and
Thompson, F.C. 2013. Key to the Genera of Nearctic Syrphidae. Canadian Journal of
Arthropod Identification 23: 1-351.
• Penney, H.D., Hassall, C., Skevington, J.H., Lamborn, B. and Sherratt, T.N. 2013. The
relationship between morphological and behavioral mimicry in hover flies (Diptera:
Syrphidae). The American Naturalist In press.
• Wright, S.G. and Skevington, J.H. 2013. Revision of the subgenus Episyrphus
(Episyrphus) Matsumura (Diptera: Syrphidae) in Australia. Zootaxa 3683(1): 51-64.
• Young, A.D., Marshall, S.A. and Skevington, J.H. 2013. Revision of Nearctic Platycheirus
(Diptera: Syrphidae). Zootaxa Submitted.
• Penney, H.D., Hassall, C., Skevington, J.H., Abbott, K.R. and Sherratt, T.N. 2012. A
comparative analysis of the evolution of imperfect mimicry. Nature 483: 461-466.
• Skevington, J.H. and Thompson, F.C. 2012. Review of New World Sericomyia (Diptera,
Syrphidae), including description of a new species. The Canadian Entomologist 144:
216-247.
Work in Urban Ecosystems Urban pollinators and green corridors
– City zoning laws (Ottawa)
– Outreach (garden and naturalist
clubs; radio broadcasts)
– Encouraging the use of native
plants
Miscellaneous
General Publication
• Marshall, S.A. 2012. Flies.
The Natural History and
Diversity of Diptera. Firefly.
616 pp.
Student Training
• Diptera PhD students trained
under Canpolin: 3
• MSc students: 3
• Honours students: 2
• FSWEP summer students: 11
• Syrphidae identification
course: 34 (course taught in
2010 and 2012)
Acknowledgements • Photos from
Bugguide, Flick’r, Steve Marshall,
Angela Skevington