Canadian Forest Service Publications

Remarkable fly (Diptera) diversity in a patch of Costa Rican cloud forest: Why inventory is a vital science. 2018. Borkent, A.; Brown, B.V.; Adler, P.H.; Amorim, D.; Barber, K..; Bickel, D.; Boucher, S.; Brooks, S.; Burger, J.; Burington, Z.L.; Capellari, R.S.; Costa, D.N.R.; Cumming, J.; Curler, G.; Dick, C.W.; Epler, J.H.; Fisher, E.; Gaimari, S.; Gelhaus, J.; Grimaldi, D.; Hash, J.; Hauser, M.; Hippa, H.; Ibáñez-Bernal, S.; Jaschhof, M.; Kameneva, E.P.; Kerr, P.; Korneyev, V.; Korytkowski, C.A.; Kung, G.-A.; Kvifte, G.M.; Lonsdale, O., Marshall, S.A., Mathis, W.N.; Michelsen, V.; Naglis, S.; Norrbom, A.L; Paiero, S.; Pape, T.; Pereira-Colavite, A.; Pollet, M.; Rochefort, S.; Rung, A.; Runyon, J.B.; Savage, J.; Silva, V.C.; Sinclair, B.J.; Skevington, J.H.; Stireman, J.O.; Swann, J.; Vilkamaa, P.; Wheeler, T.; Whitworth, T.; Wong, M.; Wood, D.M.; Woodley, N.; Yau, T.; Zavortink, T.J.; Zumbado, M.A. Zootaxa 4402(1): 53-90.

Year: 2018

Issued by: Great Lakes Forestry Centre

Catalog ID: 39114

Language: English

Availability: PDF (request by e-mail)

Available from the Journal's Web site.
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4402.1.3

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Plain Language Summary

Study of all flies (Diptera) collected for one year from a four-hectare (150 x 266 meter) patch of cloud forest at 1,600 meters above sea level at Zurquí de Moravia, San José Province, Costa Rica (hereafter referred to as Zurquí), revealed an astounding 4,332 species. This amounts to more than half the number of named species of flies for all of Central America. Specimens were collected with two Malaise traps running continuously and with a wide array of supplementary collecting methods for three days of each month. All morphospecies from all 73 families recorded were fully curated by technicians before submission to an international team of 59 taxonomic experts for identification.The number of species of Diptera in tropical regions has been severely underestimated and the actual number may surpass the number of species of Coleoptera.