Nature & Environment
24 New Species of Flower Fly Detected
Staff Reporter
First Posted: Feb 01, 2013 07:55 AM EST
A team of Spanish researchers have described 24 new insect species. This discovery was made after conducting a 10-year study in forests of the American continent.
According to the latest finding, the new insects of dipterans belong to the species from the Quinchuana genus that is also known as flower flies.
Until now, only 24 species have been known to belong to the Syrphidae family. They share similar characteristics to that of bees and wasps.
Not much is known about these new species as they live in tropical forests, reports Maria Angeles Marcos-Garcia, researcher at the Ibero-American Biodiversity Centre (CIBIO) of the University of Alicante, and one of the authors of the study.
Several studies have been conducted in these forests over the last 10 years to understand and provide data in order to help in the conservation of the plants that are home to such a wide biodiversity.
"Some specimens were captured as adults while in flight whereas others were taken as larva and were then raised in our laboratories as adults," she continues to say.
With this discovery, they were able to find out how larvae reside in small cumuli of water that is retained in different parts of the plant and also the relationship established between the insect and the plant.
"Hoverflies are present in practically all terrestrial ecosystems and they carry out very important biological functions, such as pollination, nutrient recycling and biological control of plagues as their larvae feed on other insects that are damaging to crops and ornamental plants" state the entomologists in redOrbit.
The findings have been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean society.
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First Posted: Feb 01, 2013 07:55 AM EST
A team of Spanish researchers have described 24 new insect species. This discovery was made after conducting a 10-year study in forests of the American continent.
According to the latest finding, the new insects of dipterans belong to the species from the Quinchuana genus that is also known as flower flies.
Until now, only 24 species have been known to belong to the Syrphidae family. They share similar characteristics to that of bees and wasps.
Not much is known about these new species as they live in tropical forests, reports Maria Angeles Marcos-Garcia, researcher at the Ibero-American Biodiversity Centre (CIBIO) of the University of Alicante, and one of the authors of the study.
Several studies have been conducted in these forests over the last 10 years to understand and provide data in order to help in the conservation of the plants that are home to such a wide biodiversity.
"Some specimens were captured as adults while in flight whereas others were taken as larva and were then raised in our laboratories as adults," she continues to say.
With this discovery, they were able to find out how larvae reside in small cumuli of water that is retained in different parts of the plant and also the relationship established between the insect and the plant.
"Hoverflies are present in practically all terrestrial ecosystems and they carry out very important biological functions, such as pollination, nutrient recycling and biological control of plagues as their larvae feed on other insects that are damaging to crops and ornamental plants" state the entomologists in redOrbit.
The findings have been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean society.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone