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