James E. O’Hara’s research while affiliated with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and other places

The purpose of this application, under Article 75.6 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the combination Gymnocheta viridis (Fallén, 1810) for a species of Palaearctic tachinid fly by setting aside the existing holotype of Tachina viridis Fallén, 1810 and designating a neotype in its place. The holotype is not in taxonomic accord with the current usage of the name Gymnocheta viridis and is instead conspecific with the lectotype of Gymnocheta magna Zimin, 1958. Stability and universality will be threatened if the existing holotype of Gymnocheta viridis is not replaced by a neotype, because Gymnocheta viridis will become the valid name for Gymnocheta magna and a replacement name will be needed for the current Gymnocheta viridis.

Dipteran parasitoids of Embioptera (webspinners) are few and extremely rare but known from all biogeographical regions except Australasia/Oceania. All belong to the fly family Tachinidae, a hyperdiverse and widespread clade of parasitoids attacking a variety of arthropod orders. The webspinner-parasitizing Diptera are reviewed based mostly on records from the collecting and rearing by Edward S. Ross. A new genus is erected to accommodate a new Afrotropical species, Embiophoneus rossi gen. et sp. nov. The genus Perumyia Arnaud is reviewed and a new species, Perumyia arnaudi sp. nov., is described from Central America while P. embiaphaga Arnaud is redescribed and new host records are given. A new species of Phytomyptera Rondani, P. woodi sp. nov., is described from Myanmar, representing the first report of a member of this genus obtained from webspinners. The genus Rossimyiops Mesnil is reviewed, R. longicornis (Kugler) is redescribed and R. aeratus sp. nov., R. fuscus sp. nov. and R. rutilans sp. nov. are newly described from the Oriental Region, and an updated key to species is given. Webspinners were probably colonized independently at least four times by tachinids shifting from other hosts, most likely Lepidoptera.

The Tachinidae (Diptera) of Chile are catalogued and information is given on distributions, name-bearing types, synonyms, nomenclatural issues, and pertinent literature. The history of tachinid collectors in Chile and authors who have contributed to the systematic knowledge of Chilean tachinids is extensively reviewed. The classification has been updated and 122 genera and 264 species are recognised in Chile. There is a significant amount of endemism with 28 genera and 100 species known only from Chile. There are also 113 species with distributions shared only between Chile and Argentina, particularly in the southern portions of these countries comprising Patagonia. The catalogue is based on examination of the original descriptions of all nominal species and all other references known to us containing relevant taxonomic and distributional information, for a total of approximately 450 references. Many of the name-bearing types and other Chilean specimens housed in collections were examined. Taxa are arranged hierarchically and alphabetically under the categories of subfamily, tribe, genus, subgenus (where recognised), and species. Nomenclatural information is provided for genus-group and species-group names, including lists of synonyms (mostly restricted to Neotropical taxa) and name-bearing type data. Species distributions are recorded by country within the New World and by larger geographical divisions in the Old World. Additional information is given in the form of notes and references under valid names at the level of tribe, genus, and species.

We present a summary and analysis of the Diptera-related information published in Zootaxa from 2001 to 2020, with a focus on taxonomic papers. Altogether, 2,527 papers on Diptera were published, including 2,032 taxonomic papers and 1,931 papers containing new nomenclatural acts, equivalent to 22% of all publications with new nomenclatural acts for Diptera. The new nomenclatural acts include 7,431 new species, 277 new genera, 2,003 new synonymies, and 1,617 new combinations. A breakdown by family of new taxa and new replacement names proposed in the journal during the last two decades is provided, together with a comparison of Zootaxa’s output to that of all other taxonomic publications on Diptera. Our results show that the journal has contributed to 20% of all biodiversity discovery in this megadiverse insect order over the last 20 years, and to about 31% in the last decade.

The family Tachinidae (“bristle flies”) is the most diverse and ecologically important group of insect parasitoids outside the parasitic wasps. It is among the most species rich families of flies (Diptera) and has experienced a recent adaptive radiation across the globe. We make use of a molecular phylogeny of the family to examine its rapid radiation and explore the traits of tachinid lineages that may have contributed to variation in their diversification. We apply a range of diversification analyses to assess the consistency and robustness of effects. We find that the Tachinidae are among the most rapidly diversifying families of animals. Six to eight clades of bristle flies, distributed across the phylogeny, exhibit strong evidence of accelerated diversification. Our results suggest that the use of holometabolous insect larvae, and specifically caterpillars (Lepidoptera), as hosts, is associated with increased diversification rates. However, these effects were inconsistent across analyses. We detected little influence of oviposition strategy (egg type) or host feeding habit, and we recovered evidence that unmeasured “hidden” traits may explain greater variance in diversification. We evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of different Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian approaches for analysing diversification and the potential for extrinsic factors, such as geography, to influence patterns of richness and diversification. In general, we conclude that although certain traits may provide opportunities for diversification, whether this is capitalized on may depend on additional traits and/or historical contingency.

In contribution to the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, a survey of the subfamily Phasiinae (Diptera: Tachinidae) was conducted in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Phasiines are brightly colored endoparasitoid flies that primarily attack true bugs (Heteroptera) and can be important pollinators in meadow habitats. Collections were made from August to October over a two-year period at two sites: Purchase Knob in Haywood Co., North Carolina in 2013 and Cades Cove in Blount Co., Tennessee in 2014. Phasiines were collected by sweep net and Malaise traps (baited with host pheromone lures and unbaited). Species identifications were made using updated morphological keys, comparisons to identified specimens in collections, and sequence comparisons to known species using the nuclear coding gene MCS. In total, 221 specimens representing 27 tachinid species were collected. Of these, 21 species are newly recorded from the GSMNP, five are new records for Tennessee, and four are new records for North Carolina. All 12 eastern Nearctic phasiine genera were represented. Phasiines of the genus Gymnoclytia were shown to be exceptionally attracted to pheromones of the brown stink bug (Euschistus spp.). © 2019 Entomological Society of Washington. All rights reserved.

The Canadian Diptera fauna is updated. Numbers of species currently known from Canada, total Barcode Index Numbers (BINs), and estimated numbers of undescribed or unrecorded species are provided for each family. An overview of recent changes in the systematics and Canadian faunistics of major groups is provided as well as some general information on biology and life history. A total of 116 families and 9620 described species of Canadian Diptera are reported, representing more than a 36% increase in species numbers since the last comparable assessment by JF McAlpine et al. (1979). Almost 30,000 BINs have so far been obtained from flies in Canada. Estimates of additional number of species remaining to be documented in the country range from 5200 to 20,400.

We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships within the diverse parasitoid fly family Tachinidae using four nuclear loci (7800 bp) and including an exceptionally large sample of more than 500 taxa from around the world. The position of the earthworm-parasitizing Polleniinae (Calliphoridae s.l.) as sister to Tachinidae is strongly supported. Our analyses recovered each of the four tachinid subfamilies and most recognized tribes, with some important exceptions in the Dexiinae and Tachininae. Most notably, the tachinine tribes Macquartiini and Myiophasiini form a clade sister to all other Tachinidae, and a clade of Palpostomatini is reconstructed as sister to Dexiinae + Phasiinae. Although most nodes are well-supported, relationships within several lineages that appear to have undergone rapid episodes of diversification (basal Dexiinae and Tachininae, Blondeliini) were poorly resolved. Reconstructions of host use evolution are equivocal, but generally support the hypothesis that the ancestral host of tachinids was a beetle and that subsequent host shifts to caterpillars may coincide with accelerated diversification. Evolutionary reconstructions of reproductive strategy using alternative methods were incongruent, however it is most likely that ancestral tachinids possessed unincubated, thick shelled eggs from which incubated eggs evolved repeatedly, potentially expanding available host niches. These results provide a broad foundation for understanding the phylogeny and evolution of this important family of parasitoid insects. We hope it will serve as a framework to be used in concert with morphology and other sources of evidence to revise the higher taxonomic classification of Tachinidae and further explore their evolutionary history and diversification.

A rearing study of egg and larval parasitoids of hemlock looper ( Lambdina fiscellaria (Guenée); Lepidoptera: Geometridae) was undertaken during an outbreak of this pest in Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Six parasitoid species were found: Telenomus coloradensis Crawford and T. droozi Muesebeck (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae), Winthemia occidentis Reinhard and Blondelia eufitchiae (Townsend) (Diptera: Tachinidae), as well as one species of Phobocampe Förster and Mesochorus vittator (Zetterstedt) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). None of them was a new Canadian record. To facilitate understanding of the regional parasitoid assemblage in Labrador, we compiled all published records in Canada and collated all specimen records from the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Nematodes (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). This comprehensive list will aid researchers interested in potential biological control candidates for hemlock looper.