The Fauna of Tephritidae (Diptera) from Capitula of Asteraceae in Brazil

This is the first comprehensive survey of the fauna of Tephritidae that breed in capitula of Asteraceae in southern and southeastern Brazil, resulting from a sampling program begun in 1985. The Tephritidae is the most diverse and abundant family of endophages of Asteraceae flowerheads in Brazil. From approximately 1,800 samples of capitula from 403 species of Asteraceae, we reared 9,697 Tephritidae individuals belonging to 80 species and 18 genera. Of these, at least 31 species and 3 genera are undescribed, and 30% of the described species were not previously recorded from Brazil. The most diverse tribes of Asteraceae in the Neotropics, Vernonieae and Eupatorieae, have the greatest diversity of associated tephritids, although Vernonieae has a greater number of specialist species. Although the tribe Senecioneae is moderately diversified in the studied area, it is rarely attacked and has no specialist tephritid species, in contrast with other areas of the world. The tephritid fauna in Brazilian Asteraceae flowerheads is dominated by Neotropical genera (e.g., Tomoplagia,Xanthaciura,Dictyotrypeta,Tetreuaresta, and Trypanaresta) that represent 80% of the obtained species and 90% of the obtained individuals. Most of these tephritid species are restricted to one tribe or some lower taxonomic level of Asteraceae. The main host plants for 75% of them belong to one genus or group of related genera of host plants. Most of our host records for genera and species of tephritids agree with previously published records from other world regions, showing that there is little variation in the set of host plants of tephritid species and genera among areas. The geographic distribution and host plants for each genus are discussed, and a list of host plants and localities is presented, for the identified species, totaling 167 new host records.