Forensically Relevant Flesh Flies (Diptera, Sarcophagidae, Sarcophaginae) of Southern Brazil

Flesh flies comprise a large fly family distributed worldwide that has great importance for forensic entomology. A robust and updated checklist of Sarcophaginae flies recorded in Southern Brazil is presented, based on material collected in the Rio Grande do Sul state and on a literature review. The forensic importance (high, moderate, or none) of the recorded flesh flies for estimating the postmortem interval (PMI) or inferring cases of neglect was determined based on their ecological habits. A total of 2,831 specimens representing 38 taxa were collected from three studies. Oxysarcodexia was the most abundant and species-rich genus in all three studies. Dexosarcophaga carvalhoi (Lopes) was registered for the first time in Southern Brazil. The checklist for Southern Brazil comprises 91 species distributed in 19 genera, with Oxysarcodexia, Peckia, and Lepidodexia representing the richest genera. Considering the importance of species for PMI estimation, 10, 42, and 39 species were classified as having high, moderate, or no forensic relevance, respectively. Moreover, five myiasis-causing sarcophagine flies recorded in Southern Brazil were considered to have the potential to reveal cases of neglect or mistreatment. This study revealed that Microcerella halli (Engel) and Peckia (Euboettcheria) australis (Townsend) are the most important species for PMI estimation in Southern Brazil, as they are often found breeding in corpses in this region.

Effect of Vegetation Types on Sarcophagidae (Diptera) in Ciervo de los Pantanos National Park, a Natural Remnant in a Highly Endangered Landscape

Species diversity can be affected by the structure of vegetation, which may vary in height, density, and distribution of trees, shrubs, and other plant types, configuring different types of habitats. In this study, we evaluated the diversity of sarcosaprophagous Sarcophagidae communities inhabiting the remnant representative habitats protected in Ciervo de los Pantanos National Park: grasslands, forests, and wetlands. We hypothesized that the abundance and diversity of flesh flies would be higher in the grasslands and wetlands than in the forest patches. Samplings were carried out in each habitat type using baited traps during the four seasons in 2015, 2016, and 2019. We collected 585 sarcophagid flies of 17 species. Fifteen species were recorded in grasslands, twelve in the wetlands, and seven in the forests, Tricharaea (Sarcophagula) occidua (Fabricius) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) being the most abundant (58.3% of the total sample). As expected, the highest abundance was recorded in grasslands whereas the lowest was found in forests. In addition, flesh fly abundance was affected by season. Sarcophagid assemblages differed between habitats and the overall dissimilarity was mainly explained by nestedness. This study provides important information about sarcosaprophagous sarcophagid flies in a little-studied protected natural area in Argentina, which is fundamental for their conservation and useful in forensic investigations.

Flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) of Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve (China: Xinjiang): checklist and description of four new species

A checklist of the flesh flies occurring in Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve, Xinjiang, NW China, is presented, based on material collected from 2009 to 2017. The checklist includes 18 genera and 46 species, 12 of which are new records for China. Four new species are described: Asiosarcophila kashanensis sp. nov., Miltogramma szpilai sp. nov., Sphecapatodes superciliosa sp. nov., and Sphecapatodes xinjiangensis sp. nov. Extensive documentation of the male and female habitus, details of the head, and the specialised setae of the male fore tarsus is given for all species where relevant, except for those already well illustrated in other publications. The male terminalia of almost all species of Paramacronychiinae and Sarcophaginae recorded from Kalamaili are illustrated with focus-stacked photographs.

Integrative taxonomy reveals remarkable diversity in Australian Protomiltogramma (Diptera: Sarcophagidae)

Protomiltogramma Townsend is the largest and most diverse genus of miltogrammine flesh flies in Australia. However, no comprehensive taxonomic work had been completed on the Australian members of this genus in almost a century. This study presents the first taxonomic revision of all Australian species of Protomiltogramma (Sarcophagidae: Miltogramminae), completed using an integrative approach combining molecular and morphological data. Eight new species endemic to Australia are described: P. dalbiensis sp. n., P. grandis sp. n., P. incana sp. n., P. kapnos sp. n., P. nigrisensa sp. n., P. popularis sp. n., P. rubra sp. n. and P. subtilis sp. n. In addition, P. australis Malloch, 1930 is synonymised with P. cincta Townsend, 1916, syn. n. and P. mallochi Verves, 1987 is synonymised with P. laticeps Malloch, 1930, syn. n. Molecular phylogenetics is used to place the Australian Protomiltogramma among the miltogrammine genera of the world.

Museomics and phylogenomics with protein-encoding ultraconserved elements illuminate the evolution of life history and phallic morphology of flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae)

Background The common name of the Flesh flies (Sarcophagidae) usually relates them with organisms feeding on decomposing organic matter, although the biology of one of the largest radiations among insects also includes predation, coprophagy, and even kleptoparasitism. The question of whether the ancestor of all sarcophagids was a predator or a decomposer, or in association to which host have sarcophagids evolved, has thus always piqued the curiosity of flesh fly specialists. Such curiosity has often been hindered by both the impossibility of having a well-supported phylogeny of Sarcophagidae and its sister group to trace live habits and the scarcity of information on the biology of the group. Using a phylogenomic dataset of protein-encoding ultraconserved elements from representatives of all three subfamilies of Sarcophagidae as ingroup and a large Calyptratae outgroup, a robust phylogenetic framework and timescale are generated to understand flesh fly systematics and the evolution of their life histories. Results The evolutionary history for Sarcophagidae reconstructed here differs considerably from previous hypotheses. Within subfamily Sarcophaginae, a group of predatory flies, including genera Lepidodexia and Boettcheria, emerged as sister-group to the rest of Sarcophaginae. The genera Oxysarcodexia, Ravinia, and Tricharaea, long considered archaic and early-branching coprophagous and sarcosaprophagous lineages, were found nested well within the Sarcophaginae as sister-group to the sarcosaprophagous Microcerella. Predation on invertebrates is suggested as the ancestral and dominant strategy throughout the early evolution of flesh flies. Several transitions from predation to sarcosaprophagy and coprophagy occur across the sarcophagid phylogenetic tree, in contrast with almost no transitions from sarcosaprophagy or coprophagy to predatory habits. Regarding the morphological evolution of flesh flies, there might be a concerted evolution of male genitalia traits, such as the phallotrema position and the juxta, or the vesica and the folding of the phallotrema. One diversification rate shift was inferred in the evolution of sarcophagids, which is related to the origin of genus Sarcophaga. Conclusions This study has a significant impact on understanding sarcophagid evolution and highlights the importance of having a robust phylogenetic framework to reconstruct the ancestral character state of biological and morphological characters. I discuss the evolution of life histories of the family in relation to their hosts or substrates and outline how sarcosaprophagy, coprophagy, and kleptoparasitism behavior on various hosts may have evolved from predation on invertebrates. This study provides a phylogenetic framework for further physiological and comparative genomic work between predatory, sarcosaprophagous, coprophagous, and kleptoparasitic lineages, which could also have significant implications for the evolution of diverse life histories in other Diptera.

Cuticular hydrocarbons for identifying Sarcophagidae (Diptera)

The composition and quantity of insect cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) can be species-specific as well as sexually dimorphic within species. CHC analysis has been previously used for identification and ageing purposes for several insect orders including true flies (Diptera). Here, we analysed the CHC chemical profiles of adult males and females of eleven species of flesh flies belonging to the genus Sarcophaga Meigen (Sarcophagidae), namely Sarcophaga africa (Wiedemann), S. agnata Rondani, S. argyrostoma Robineau-Desvoidy, S. carnaria (Linnaeus), S. crassipalpis Macquart, S. melanura Meigen, S. pumila Meigen, S. teretirostris Pandellé, S. subvicina Rohdendorf, S. vagans Meigen and S. variegata (Scopoli). Cuticular hydrocarbons extracted from pinned specimens from the collections of the Natural History Museum, London using a customised extraction technique were analysed using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry. Time of preservation prior to extraction ranged between a few weeks to over one hundred years. CHC profiles (1) allowed reliable identification of a large majority of specimens, (2) differed between males and females of the same species, (3) reliably associated males and females of the same species, provided sufficient replicates (up to 10) of each sex were analysed, and (4) identified specimens preserved for up to over one hundred years prior to extraction.

Diversity of flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) in an Atlantic forest fragment in Rio das Ostras, RJ, Southeastern Brazil

Sarcophagidae is a family of Diptera with medical-veterinary importance, which have species with sarcosaprophagous, necrophagous or causing-myiasis larvae, among others. The Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has 92 municipalities, but only 26 have sarcophagid records and the municipality of Rio das Ostras is one of the least registered, with only nine species recorded. This works aimed to increase the knowledge of flesh fly diversity in a conservation unit of this municipality, the “Área de Relevante Interesse Ecológico de Itapebussus”. The study was conducted in restinga and semideciduous forest. We used modified Van Someren-Rydon traps baited with decayed fish, and the samples were taken in dry and rainy seasons. A total of 446 male sarcophagines of 18 species of the genera Oxysarcodexia, Peckia, Ravinia, Sarcofahrtiopsis, and Titanogrypa were collected. We found 13 new records for the sampled municipality. The forest presented higher richness than the restinga and the most abundant species was Oxysarcodexia amorosa (Schiner). Diversity and equitability showed similar values in the two areas (H'f=2.193, H'r=2.027, J'f=0.7908 and J'r=0.7682) and the cluster analysis suggest high similarity. PERMANOVA did not present significant results for any source of variation. The presence of synanthropic and asynanthropic species in the fragment demonstrates that it is already a somewhat human-impacted environment. Marked increase in the number of sarcophagid records obtained in this small sample in the studied municipality (from nine to 22 species) shows the importance of taxonomic surveys in poorly studied areas.

Diversity of flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) in an Atlantic forest fragment in Rio das Ostras, RJ, Southeastern Brazil

Sarcophagidae is a family of Diptera with medical-veterinary importance, which have species with sarcosaprophagous, necrophagous or causing-myiasis larvae, among others. The Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has 92 municipalities, but only 26 have sarcophagid records and the municipality of Rio das Ostras is one of the least registered, with only nine species recorded. This works aimed to increase the knowledge of flesh fly diversity in a conservation unit of this municipality, the “Área de Relevante Interesse Ecológico de Itapebussus”. The study was conducted in restinga and semideciduous forest. We used modified Van Someren-Rydon traps baited with decayed fish, and the samples were taken in dry and rainy seasons. A total of 446 male sarcophagines of 18 species of the genera Oxysarcodexia, Peckia, Ravinia, Sarcofahrtiopsis, and Titanogrypa were collected. We found 13 new records for the sampled municipality. The forest presented higher richness than the restinga and the most abundant species was Oxysarcodexia amorosa (Schiner). Diversity and equitability showed similar values in the two areas (H'f=2.193, H'r=2.027, J'f=0.7908 and J'r=0.7682) and the cluster analysis suggest high similarity. PERMANOVA did not present significant results for any source of variation. The presence of synanthropic and asynanthropic species in the fragment demonstrates that it is already a somewhat human-impacted environment. Marked increase in the number of sarcophagid records obtained in this small sample in the studied municipality (from nine to 22 species) shows the importance of taxonomic surveys in poorly studied areas.