Zygothrica, Wiedemann. Some, 1830

Schmitz, Hermes José & Valente, Vera Lúcia da Silva, 2019, The flower flies and the unknown diversity of Drosophilidae (Diptera): a biodiversity inventory in the Brazilian fauna, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 59, pp. 1-15 : 9

Zygothrica

It is reported that great numbers of adult flies of this genus can be found over bracket fungi in rainforests, but the kind of relation between flies and fungi is questionable. Undoubtedly, fungi actually represent breeding sites for some Zygothrica species ( Grimaldi, 1987; Roque et al., 2006; Valer et al., 2016), but Grimaldi (1987) suggested that in many cases they are used only as rendez‑vous sites. Indeed, several records for breeding sites in the genus are flowers, although they are reported only for a few species ( Grimaldi, 1987; Fonseca et al., 2017). Zygothrica dispar is a good example of this behavior: Burla (1954) stated that flies of this species were caught by sweeping a net over numerous fungi,but Frota‑Pessoa (1952), Malogolowkin (1952), and Santos & Vilela (2005) reared the species from flowers. It was suggested before ( Malogolowkin, 1952; Santos & Vilela, 2005) that this species is mainly a ground‑feeder, opportunistically using fallen flowers. Going against that, in our samples, it was reared mainly from flowers that were collected alive.Time for emergence was around 15‑18 days. It demonstrated a preference for forested environments, being, in fact, the main flower‑breeding species in the area of Atlantic Forest of Morro da Lagoa da Conceição, Florianópolis. The other species, Z. sp.1, was reared only from Solanum flowers (also collected alive). Interestingly, this situation is analogous with that found in the Drosophila bromeliae species group, with Solanum again requiring a specialized performance.