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The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia

BACKGROUND: The majority of all known drosophilid flies feed on microbes. The wide spread of microorganisms consequently mean that drosophilids also can be found on a broad range of substrates. One of the more peculiar types of habitat is shown by three species of flies that have colonized land crab...

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Autores principales: Stensmyr, Marcus C., Stieber, Regina, Hansson, Bill S.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275792/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18398468
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001942
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author Stensmyr, Marcus C.
Stieber, Regina
Hansson, Bill S.
author_facet Stensmyr, Marcus C.
Stieber, Regina
Hansson, Bill S.
author_sort Stensmyr, Marcus C.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The majority of all known drosophilid flies feed on microbes. The wide spread of microorganisms consequently mean that drosophilids also can be found on a broad range of substrates. One of the more peculiar types of habitat is shown by three species of flies that have colonized land crabs. In spite of their intriguing lifestyle, the crab flies have remained poorly studied. Perhaps the least investigated of the three crab flies is the Cayman Island endemic Drosophila endobranchia. Apart from its life cycle very little is known about this species, including its phylogenetic position, which has remained unresolved due to a cryptic set of characteristics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Based on molecular data, corroborated by a re-analysis of the morphological make up, we have resolved the phylogenetic position of D. endobranchia and show that it somewhat surprisingly belongs to the large Neotropical repleta radiation, and should be considered as an aberrant member of the canalinea species group. Furthermore we also provide additional data on the behavior of these remarkable flies. CONCLUSION: Our findings reveal that the two Caribbean crab flies are not as distantly related as first thought, as both species are members of the derived repleta radiation. That this lineage has given rise to two species with the same odd type of breeding substrate is curious and prompts the question of what aspects of their shared ancestry has made these flies suitable for a life on (and inside) land crabs. Knowledge of the phylogenetic position of D. endobranchia will allow for comparative explorations and will aid in efforts aimed at understanding processes involved in drastic host shifts and extreme specialization.
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spelling pubmed-22757922008-04-09 The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia Stensmyr, Marcus C. Stieber, Regina Hansson, Bill S. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The majority of all known drosophilid flies feed on microbes. The wide spread of microorganisms consequently mean that drosophilids also can be found on a broad range of substrates. One of the more peculiar types of habitat is shown by three species of flies that have colonized land crabs. In spite of their intriguing lifestyle, the crab flies have remained poorly studied. Perhaps the least investigated of the three crab flies is the Cayman Island endemic Drosophila endobranchia. Apart from its life cycle very little is known about this species, including its phylogenetic position, which has remained unresolved due to a cryptic set of characteristics. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Based on molecular data, corroborated by a re-analysis of the morphological make up, we have resolved the phylogenetic position of D. endobranchia and show that it somewhat surprisingly belongs to the large Neotropical repleta radiation, and should be considered as an aberrant member of the canalinea species group. Furthermore we also provide additional data on the behavior of these remarkable flies. CONCLUSION: Our findings reveal that the two Caribbean crab flies are not as distantly related as first thought, as both species are members of the derived repleta radiation. That this lineage has given rise to two species with the same odd type of breeding substrate is curious and prompts the question of what aspects of their shared ancestry has made these flies suitable for a life on (and inside) land crabs. Knowledge of the phylogenetic position of D. endobranchia will allow for comparative explorations and will aid in efforts aimed at understanding processes involved in drastic host shifts and extreme specialization. Public Library of Science 2008-04-09 /pmc/articles/PMC2275792/ /pubmed/18398468 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001942 Text en Stensmyr et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Stensmyr, Marcus C.
Stieber, Regina
Hansson, Bill S.
The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia
title The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia
title_full The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia
title_fullStr The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia
title_full_unstemmed The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia
title_short The Cayman Crab Fly Revisited — Phylogeny and Biology of Drosophila endobranchia
title_sort cayman crab fly revisited — phylogeny and biology of drosophila endobranchia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275792/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18398468
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001942
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