Mirian Morales

• PhD
• Agro Environmental Affaris Research and Systems Manager at JTI

The SISBIOTA-BRASIL was a three-year multimillion-dollar research program of the Brazilian government to document plants and animals in endangered/understudied areas and biomes in Brazil. Distributional patterns and the historical events that generated them are extensively unknown regarding Brazilian fauna and flora. This deficiency hinders the dev...

Roraima is a Brazilian state located in the northern portion of the Amazon basin, with few studies regarding its biodiversity. The Ecological Station of Maracá (Brazil, state of Roraima) harbors the third largest Brazilian pluvial island and is composed of a transitional landscape of savanna and Amazon rainforest components. Despite its ecological...

Herbivory can induce changes in flower traits influencing the community of flower-visiting insects and ultimately impacting the plant’s reproductive output. Here, we investigated how leaf herbivory on sweet pepper plants, Capsicum annuum L., by Diabrotica speciosa (Germar) adults influences the community of insect floral visitors and alters plant r...

Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse biomes on the planet. Nevertheless, quantifying the abundance and species richness within megadiverse groups is a significant challenge. We designed a study to address this challenge by documenting the variability of the insect fauna across a vertical canopy gradient in a Central Amazonian tropical for...

Knowledge about the development and bioecology of red-banded thrips, Selenothrips rubrocinctus (Giard, 1901) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), is scarce. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that the development of S. rubrocinctus is affected by the rose cultivar in which it grows. The biological characteristics of this thrips in two rose cultivars were...

Measuring species richness of tropical forests is a major challenge. Such measurement is a key information in many senses, from an evolutionary perspective to conservation of threatened, fragile habitats. Data has gradually shown that the canopy of tropical forest is a hugely complex component of the forest, but a precise assessment of the diversit...

Eumerus Meigen, 1823 is a very speciose genus of flower flies from the Eastern Hemisphere. Several reports of introduced species of this genus in the Americas have been recorded since early in the twentieth century, with a present list of six species recorded to date from the Americas and the US territory of Hawaii. In this paper we give new geogra...

Non-crop habitats play a key role in maintaining functional diversity and ecosystem services in farmland. However, the interplay between beneficial insects and landscape variables has rarely been investigated in Neotropical agroecosystems. We used flower flies as a model group to investigate the effects of landscape attributes on beneficial insects...

The hoverfly species Palpada panorama sp. n. (Diptera: Syrphidae) is described based on specimens from Peru and Suriname. It belongs to the scutellaris species group and it is most similar to P. erratica (Curran, 1930), from which it differs most notably by the strongly enlarged ommatidia in the upper half of the eye. Additional differences between...

The syrphid subfamily Microdontinae is characterized by myrmecophily of their immature stag-es, i.e., they develop in ant nests. Data on natural history of microdontines are scarce, especially in the Neotropics. Based on fieldwork in southern Brazil, this study provided new data on devel-opment and ecology of the hoverfly Pseudomicrodon biluminifer...

Citation: Morales MN, Ståhls G, Hippa H (2013) Two new species of Meropidia Hippa & Thompson, 1983 (Diptera, Syrphidae) from the Andes Mountains. ZooKeys 338: 55–65. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.338.6093 Abstract Two new species of Meropidia Hippa & Thompson, 1983 (Diptera, Syrphidae) are described, Meropidia nitida Morales, sp. n. and M. flavens Hippa & S...

Palpada Macquart, 1834 is a large genus of tropical Eristaliini flies with distribution restricted to the New World (Diptera : Syrphidae : Eristalinae). Most species were initially placed within Eristalis Latreille, 1804. In 1972, most Neotropical species were transferred to Palpada when F.C. Thompson divided Eristalis sensu lato into three genera:...

The adult stage of a new species of flower fly, Alipumilio athesphatus Thompson (Diptera, Syrphidae) is described. The gross morphology and external integumentary features of the egg, third-instar larva and pupa are also presented. All immature stages were found in association with the exudate resin of Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardiaceae)...

The adult stage of a new species of flower fly, Alipumilio athesphatus Thompson (Diptera, Syrphidae) is described. The gross morphology and external integumentary features of the egg, third-instar larva and pupa are also presented. All immature stages were found in association with the exudate resin of Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardiaceae)...

FIGURES 1 – 4. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., egg (SEM). (1) Laterodorsal view. (2) Detail of micropyle. (3 – 4) Detail of chorionic surface. Scale bar: Fig. (1): 200 µm; Figs (2 – 3): 20 µm; Fig. (4): 10 µm.

FIGURES 16 – 19. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., posterior respiratory process, third instar larvae. (16) Anterobasal view. (17) Anterior view. (18 – 19) Apical tip. Scale bar: Fig. (16): 100 µm; Fig. (17): 200 µm; Fig. (18): 50 µm; Fig. (19): 10 µm. (lap) lappet. (sop) spiracular opening. (ssc) spiracular scar.

FIGURES 10 – 15. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., third instar larvae (SEM). (10) Prothorax, anteroventral view. (11) Mandibular hook, anterior view. (12) Prothorax, dorsal view (anterior spiracle released with a square). (13) Antennomaxillary complex, anterodorsal view. (14) Anterior spiracle, anterodorsal view. (15) Tubercle of differentiated cutic...

FIGURES 25 – 28. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., adult. Male: (25) Dorsal view. (26) Lateral view. (27) Head, anterior view. Female: (28) Head, anterior view. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURES 29 – 30. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., male genitalia. (29) Epandrium, cercus and surstylus, lateral view. (30) Hypandrium and associated structures, lateral view. Scale bar: 0.25 mm.

FIGURES 5 – 9. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., immature stages. Third instar larvae: (5) lateral view: (a) detail of proleg. (6) Mandible, lateral view. Posterior respiratory process: (7) First instar larvae. (8) Second instar larvae. (9) Third instar larvae. Scale bar: Fig. (5): 1 mm; Fig. (6): 0.5 mm; Figs (7 – 9): 0.25 mm. (mal) mandibular apodem...

FIGURES 31 – 33. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., female genitalia. (31) Dorsal view. (32) Spermatheca. (33) Detail of epiproct and cercus. Scale bar: Fig. (31): 0.25 mm. Figs (32 – 33): 0.15 mm. (cer) cercus. (ept) epiproct. (viii) = tergum VIII.

FIGURES 20 – 23. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., pupae. (20) Pupa, initial stage of development. (21) Pupa into a drop of exudate resin. (22) Pupa, final stage of development (note the adult emerging). (23) Detail of pupal spiracle. Scale bar: Figs (20 – 22): 1 mm; Fig. (23): 0.25 mm. (psc) pupal spiracle. (tdc) tubercle of differentiated cuticle.

FIGURE 24. Alipumilio athesphatus sp. n., pupal spiracle: (a) detail of circular-shaped tubercle, with five spiracular openings (which are covered by resin). Scale bar: 100 µm.

A new combination is proposed: Habromyia barbiellinii (Hull 1946) = Lejops barbiellinii (Ceresa 1934). Third-stage lar-vae and puparia of Lejops barbiellinii are described and the adult male redescribed. The larvae were found in phytotel-mata of terrestrial Bromeliaceae in Parque Estadual do Rio da Onça, Matinhos, Paraná, Brazil.

Objetivou-se investigar a comunidade de Syrphidae, do Cinturão Verde de Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, Brasil, permitindo a obtenção de informações acerca da composição e estrutura desta comunidade, suas preferências florais e interações entre as espécies na utilização de recursos alimentares. Realizaram-se coletas com rede entomológica, entre setembro/200...

The aim of this study was to investigate the Syrphidae community in the area of the Green Belt of Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, Brazil, as well as to obtain information on the structure and composition of this community, its floral preferences and the interactions between the species in the food resource utilization. The specimens were collected with ento...

Despite of the richness and abundance of the Syrphidae in the Neotropical Region, the bibliography about the family for this area is relatively scarce. Identification of specimens belonging to this family and, more specifically for those of the subfamily Syrphinae, becomes difficult because of the great variation between the species of a single gen...

Between December 2001 and December 2003, collections of flower visitors of Eryngium horridum (Apiaceae) were carried out in areas of Rio Pardo Valley, RS, Brazil. This plant is perennial, commonly found in dry fields, presenting a wide distribution. Its flowering period ranges from November to January in Rio Grande do Sul. A total of 1,066 insects...

Rev. bras. Zoociências Juiz de Fora V. 6 Nº1 Jul/2004 p. 93-102 Ornidia Lepeletier & Serville, 1828 (Diptera, Syrphidae) no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil: distribuição e preferência floral ABSTRACT: The genus Ornidia (Diptera, Syrphidae) is represented by four described species, three of them are recorded from Brazil. Studies about this group...