More than meets the eye: A taxonomic revision of the Nearctic species in the eye-gnat genus Amiota Loew (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

<p>Thorough biotic inventories are still needed even in families as seemingly well-studied as fruit flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Drosophilidae have had an outsize effect on the history of biology because of their pivotal role in the study of genetics, development, and evolution. Even with more than a century of intensive study, large gaps remain in our understanding of diversity in this fly family, including well-studied areas such as North America. This thesis presents a taxonomic revision of the Nearctic species of the genus <em>Amiota</em> Loew. Twenty-three species are identified as being new to science for publication at a later date. This increases the total species known in the Nearctic to 34. <em>Amiota steganoptera</em> Malloch is excluded from the Nearctic and <em>Amiota setigera</em> Malloch is synonymized under <em>Amiota humeralis</em> Loew. The taxonomic history of the Nearctic species is reviewed, and various aspects of their biology is presented, including larval saproxyly and adult lachryphagy. Morphological diagnoses are provided to define and separate each species, as are illustrations of male terminalia. Specimen-level distribution data is provided for each species. Limitations to the study of <em>Amiota</em> and future prospects are discussed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biology

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Lance E

Contributors dc:contributor

• Amy Berkov
• David Grimaldi
• David Lohman

• fruit flies
• lachryphagy
• new species
• saproxyly
• sky islands
• taxonomy
• Biodiversity
• Entomology
• Evolution

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/848

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-1941