Diptera

Reiter

Info

The Diptera Section manages and takes curatorial care of the large collection of Diptera, but also other small orders like Siphonaptera, Strepsiptera, Embioptera, Mecoptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera and Neuroptera.

Our research focuses on the systematics and taxonomy of true flies (Diptera), both based on molecular techniques (DNA taxonomy) and morphological characters. In addition, the ecology and the feeding modes of immature stages as well as phylogenomics and new methods in phylogenetic studies are fields of interest.

Our section is also involved in the German Barcode of Life, a project dedicated to compile a unique genetic library for the German flora and fauna, and we are active in cybertaxonomy providing high-quality images, raw data and literature information in different servers like Encyclopedia of Life (via LifeDesks) and Scrachtpads.

Staff

Scientist, permanent position

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Head of the Section Diptera, Curator

Tel: +49 228 9122-292

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

E-Mail: x.mengual [at] leibniz-zfmk.de

Technical or laboratory assistant

Lena Schlebusch

Technical Assitant Section Diptera

Tel: +49 228 9122-293

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

E-Mail: l.schlebusch [at] leibniz-lib.de

Scientist, third-party funded

Marcelo de Santis

Postdoc

Tel: +49 228 9122-321

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

E-Mail: M.deSantis [at] leibniz-lib.de

Ph.D. student

Trevor Burt

PhD student

Tel: +49 228 9122-321

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

E-Mail: t.burt [at] zfmk.de

Moritz Fahldieck

PhD Student GBOL III

Tel: +49 228 9122-321

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

E-Mail: m.fahldieck [at] leibniz-zfmk.de

Santiago Jaume Schinkel

PhD Student "GBOL III: Dark Taxa"

Tel: +49 228 9122-321

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

E-Mail: s.jaume [at] leibniz-zfmk.de

Projects

2022

BGE - Biodiversity Genomics Europe

Project lead:

Astrid Böhne

Funding:

European Union

ERGA - The European Referen...

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) initiative is a pan-European scientific response to current threats to biodiversity. Reference genomes provide the most complete insight into the genetic basis that forms each species and represent a powerful resource in understanding how biodiversity functions. ERGA aims to sequence the genomes of all European species and will for this establish an interdisciplinary workflow.

Project lead:

Astrid Böhne

Funding:

European Union

2020

CaBOL - Caucasus Barcode of Life

A Georgian-Armenian-German initiative to build research infrastructures and to explore and barcode the biodiversity of the Caucasus

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

GBOL III: Dark Taxa

The BMBF-funded GBOL, the German Barcode of Life initiative, has been run successfully over the last eight years. It delivered an operative DNA barcode reference library for German animals, fungi and plants. However, a significant proportion of insect taxa has so far been excluded from GBOL and merely all biodiversity research, because no or only very insufficient expertise and information are available that allow to get a grip on them. They are called “Dark Taxa”.

Project lead:

Dr. Ralph S. Peters

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

2018

Establishing a standardized and universally applicable set of nuclear-encoded markers for genome-wide multi-locus species delimitation of metazoans

Methods for delimiting species based on multi-gene nucleotide information are well established and provide the means to complement the classical COI barcoding approach, whose limitations are well known. Our research project aims at establishing a standardized set of single-copy nuclear-encoded markers for genome-wide multi-locus species delimitation by exploiting comparative genomic data and applying target DNA enrichment. Candidate markers are so-called Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (USCOs).

Project lead:

Dr. Dirk Ahrens

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Plant-pollinator networks in agro-ecosystems

Pollination is crucial for maintaining angiosperm biodiversity and represents one of the most important ecosystem services. With the increasing threats of massive insect decline, studying pollination and associated networks has become more important than ever. In this study, we target the plant-pollinator networks of two important crops (caraway and apple) using a combination of traditional methods with DNA barcoding and metabarcoding.

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. J. Wolfgang Wägele

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

2017

GGBC: Assessment, Monitoring and Management of Caucasian Biodiversity

A Georgian-German initiative to explore and barcode the biodiversity of the Caucasus area

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

2016

Syrphids of New Caledonia

The main objective of this project will be the study of the species of the family Syrphidae from New Caledonia. Entomological collections will be surveyed to complete the revision of the fauna of this country. I will especially focus on unidentified material in order to study their morphology and to report new species for this country and, ultimately, to find new species to science.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Funding:

European Union

2015

INDOBIOSYS Diptera

The INDOBIOSYS project (financed by the BMBF through the Naturkundemuseum Berlin) deals with the integrative inventory of different animal groups at the Halimun-Salak Nationalpark on Java, Indonesia. A special focus lies on a fast inventory combining molecular and morphological data. The aim of the project is an inventory of the biodiversity of the park for the Indonesian state. Successively, pharmaceutical research for relevant substances in the animal taxa can then be conducted.The INDOBIOSYS Myriapoda part of the project will inventorize the millipedes.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

BIG4 - Diptera

Syrphidae, commonly called hover or flower flies, is one of the most diverse families of Diptera very attractive for citizen-scientists. Phylogenetic relationships among its main subfamilies and genera are still not totally understood; especially large genera such as Allobaccha Curran and Asarkina Macquart. This project aims to review both genera in order to describe the new species using new publishing tools, as well as to study their phylogenetic placement among other Syrphidae with the development of a workflow for Ultra-Conserved Elements or Anchored Hybrid Enrichment technique.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Funding:

European Union

BIG4

BIG4 is a global consortium to train a new generation of systematic entomologists with broad profiles amalgamating classical aspects of biosystematics with the cross-disciplinary methodological innovations. Evolution of insects from the four biggest orders (1. beetles; 2. bees, ants and wasps; 3. flies and mosquitoes; 4. moths and butterflies) is at the core of BIG4. These ‘big four’ insect groups constitute about half of all living species on Earth and have an enormous impact on natural or anthropogenic ecosystems, even when not visible as such by a layman.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Funding:

European Union

2014

World Syrphidae Phylogeny

The World Syrphidae Phylogeny (WSP) project is a community effort with the goal to provide the most robust molecular backbone to understand the evolution of the family Syrphidae.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Syrphidae fauna of the UCLA University Park, Lara State, Venezuela

This project will provide better knowledge of the biodiversity of flower flies that occur in the University Park of the UCLA (Lara, Venezuela). In addition, and the biological cycle of the predacious species of Syrphidae will be studied.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Syrphidae of the Southern provinces of Eucador

Flower flies are one of the most diverse families of true flies (Diptera). In this project, we will study the biodiversity of flower flies among different habitats in one of the species-richest areas on Earth, the South of Ecuador.

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Funding:

Alexander-Koenig-Society e.V., La Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja

Molecular phylogeny of the genus Anastrepha

The main objective of this study is to infer the molecular phylogeny of one of the most economical important genus of fruit flies, Anastrepha (Tephritidae).

Project lead:

Dr. Ximo Mengual

Funding:

United States Department of Agriculture

2011

GBOL- German Barcode of Life

"German Barcode of Life" ( GBOL ) is a project sponsored by the BMBF and includes the creation of inventories for the gentic characterization of the animals, fungi and plants of germany, using DNA-Barcodes.

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. J. Wolfgang Wägele

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

2009

Mycetophilidae (Diptera) in…

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Publications

Below you will find the publications of the Diptera Section arranged by year of publication.

Published in

2024

Rduch, V., Dey, L.-S., Ghazaryan, A., Husemann, M., Iankoshvili, G., Krammer, H.-J., Lambrecht, M., Marabuto, E., Mengual, X., Müller, B., Peters, R.S., Rulik, B., Salden, T., Silva-Brandão, K.L., Espeland, M., Thormann, J., Töpfer, T., Weiss, C., Żyła, D. & Hein, N. (2024): Exkursion in den Kaukasus: Der CaBOL BioBlitz 2022 in Armenien und Georgien. Koenigiana 18: 21-40

[read more]

2023

Maza, N., López-García, G. P., Mengual, X. (2023): Syrphidae.. - In: Claps, L. E., Roig-Juñent, S., Morrone, J. J. (ed.): Biodiversidad de artrópodos argentinos, Volumen 6. - Instituto Superior de Entomología “Dr. Abraham Willink” (INSUE) (San Miguel de Tucumán). pp. 324-346.

[read more]

Documents:

2023_argentina.pdf

Cornuel-Willermoz, A., Lebard, T., Bot, S., Mengual, X. (2023): Découverte d’Eumerus emarginatus Loew, 1848 en Corse, une nouvelle espèce pour la faune de France (Diptera Syrphidae). - L’Entomologiste 79 (4): 245-250.

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Documents:

2023_eumerus_corsica.pdf

Mengual, X. (2023): Selected species described by F. Christian Thompson. IX. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 296.

[read more]

Documents:

296_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_296.pdf

Mengual, X. (2023): F. Christian Thompson (1944–2021): his influence and legacy to Neotropical dipterology. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 43-52.

[read more]

Documents:

043-052_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_043-052.pdf

Mengual, X. (2023): Selected species described by F. Christian Thompson. V. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 188.

[read more]

Documents:

188_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_188.pdf

Bock, K., Mengual, X. (2023): New records of Japanese robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) deposited at the ZFMK collections. - Bonn zoological Bulletin 72 (1): 67-83.

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van Steenis J., Ólafsson E., Mengual X. (2023): Iceland, a mere remote island or a hoverfly (Diptera, Syrphidae) hotspot for endemism? A case study of Platycheirus islandicus Ringdahl, 1930 and P. manicatus Meigen, 1822. - Journaal van Syrphidae 2(6): 1-22.

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Mengual, X., Evenhuis, N. L., Jordaens, K., Skevington, J. H. (2023): Publications of F. Christian Thompson. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 279-295.

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Documents:

279-295_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_et_al._279-295.pdf

Mengual, X., Barkalov, A. V. (2023): A new species of Cheilosia Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae) from high mountains of India. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 227-235.

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Documents:

227-235_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_barkalov_227-235.pdf

Kilian, I.C., Swenson, S.J., Mengual, X., Gemeinholzer, B., Hamm, A., Wägele, W., Peters, R.S. (2023): More complex than you think: Taxonomic and temporal patterns of plant‐pollinator networks of caraway (Carum carvi L.). Molecular Ecology 32: 3702-3717

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Jaume-Schinkel, S. (2023): Description of Tonnoira chuki sp. n. (Diptera: Psychodidae) from Ecuador, with an updated identification key for the genus Tonnoira. - Integrative Systematics: Stuttgart Contributions to Natural History 6 (1): 51-57.

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Mengual, X. (2023): Selected species described by F. Christian Thompson. VI. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 236.

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Documents:

236_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_236.pdf

Wong, D., Norman, H., Creedy, T. J., Jordaens, K., Moran, K. M., Young, A., Mengual, X., Skevington, J. H., Vogler, A. P. (2023): The phylogeny and evolutionary ecology of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) inferred from mitochondrial genomes. - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 184: 107759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107759.

[read more]

Documents:

2023_mitogenomes.pdf

Mengual, X., Lebard, T., Cornuel-Willermoz, A. (2023): New hover fly records for Corsica: results from Our Planet Reviewed in Corsica 2019-2021 (Diptera, Syrphidae). - Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, 128 (4): 561-596.

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Documents:

2294_mengual_et_al.pdf

Mengual, X. (2023): Selected species described by F. Christian Thompson. I. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 42.

[read more]

Documents:

042_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_042.pdf

Mengual, X. (2023): Selected species described by F. Christian Thompson. II. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 68.

[read more]

Documents:

068_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_068.pdf

Jaume-Schinkel, S., Mengual, X., Howe, A. G., Fagan-Jeffries, E. P. (2023): The hitchhiker’s guide to Australia: the 18,000-km-long journey of Alepia viatrix Jaume-Schinkel, Kvifte, Weele & Mengual, 2022 (Diptera, Psychodidae) discovered through citizen science. - Check List 19(4): 589-597.

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Jaume-Schinkel, S., Kvifte, G. M., Njunjić, I., Schilthuizen, M. (2023): New records of moth flies (Diptera, Psychodidae) for the Dutch Fauna. - Biodiversity Data Journal 11: e108636.

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Mengual, X. (2023): Selected species described by F. Christian Thompson. VII. - Studia dipterologica, Supplement 23: 264.

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Documents:

264_studia_dipt-suppl-23_thompson_-_mengual_264.pdf