FLYTREE - Assembling the Tree of Life for Diptera

Finding The Fly Tree of Life - The Poster!

2011-10-05T15:26:00.004-05:00

Fly diversity is unimaginably huge: over 150,000 species in 150+ families that evolved over 240 million years. Hard to picture? Take a look at this poster, FINDING THE FLY TREE OF LIFE, a visual summary of fly diversity and evolution taken from the FLYTREE results published earlier this year. It includes an image of every currently recognized family of flies (depending on your classification), and shows our current "best guess" of how fly families are related, based on analysis of DNA sequences.

This public-friendly poster is part of the outreach component of the FLYTREE project, and is meant to help publicize the project and fly diversity in general. Feel free to print, distribute, or advertise. Thanks to all who gave permission to use their images, especially Tom Murray and others at www.bugguide.net.

Map of the Fly Tree of Life Published!

2011-03-14T21:54:00.000-05:00

Hailed as the "new periodic table for flies," the National Science Foundation funded FLYTREE project published its findings in the March 14, 2011 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

Wiegmann, B.M., Trautwein, M.D., Winkler, I.S., Barr, N.B., Kim, J.-W., Lambkin, C., Bertone, M.A., Cassel, B.K., Bayless, K.M., Heimberg, A.M., Wheeler, B.M., Peterson, K.J., Pape, T., Sinclair, B.J., Skevington, J.H., Blagoderov, V., Caravas, J., Kutty, S.N., Schmidt-Ott, U., Kampmeier, G.E., Thompson, F.C., Grimaldi, D.A., Beckenbach, A.T., Courtney, G.W., Friedrich, M., Meier, R., and Yeates, D.K. 2011. Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life.

Congratulations!!

Rediscovering World's Rarest Fly

2010-12-08T08:23:00.001-06:00

News of the rediscovery by Ashley Kirk-Spriggs (National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa) and Robert Copeland (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya) of a fly species not seen in more than 60 years delighted dipterists all over the world. Although the fly, Mormotomyia hirsuta, or the Terrible Hairy Fly, was found in 1933 and again in 1948, no amount of digging around in bat guano in the only spot from which the species is known had turned it up again until now. Because this species is not only the sole member of its genus, but of its family, the rediscovery at a time when molecular analysis can be added to morphological assessments is exciting news to those working on understanding the relationships among the higher flies. See http://www.nasmus.co.za/museum/news/world’s-rarest-fly-rediscovered

Mormotomyia hirsuta, male; photo by Robert Copeland

The Eyes have it!

2010-06-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

Four of the six featured photos in Wired's latest close-up of "crazy bug eyes" are flies!

Drain flies spark a lumper/splitter debate

2010-05-14T09:58:00.001-05:00

You've likely seen them in your bathroom or at a public toilet: drain flies in the family Psychodidae. They flit from wall to wall where they cling like flecks of dust. Their hairy wings, antennae, and bodies are cute or scruffy, depending on your point of view. Barb Sharanowski featured one species on the North Carolina Insect Museum's Insect of the Week. Her post brought comments by taxonomists talking about which taxonomic concept should be accepted for this fly: Telmatoscopus albipunctata Williston, 1983 or Clogmia albipunctata (Williston, 1983). This species was sequenced for the FLYTREE project.

Dr. Art Borkent, biting midge expert, featured

2010-04-10T14:30:00.010-05:00

Known as the world expert on the systematics of families of midges (small, often annoying flies that may bite), Art Borkent was featured in Spotlight our Taxonomist in the journal Zootaxa. He was awarded the prestigious J.O. Westwood Medal for Excellence in Insect Taxonomy by the Royal Entomological Society, in partnership with the Natural History Museum in London, for his monograph on The Frog-Biting Midges of the World (Corethrellidae: Diptera), which was published in Zootaxa.

In the Year of Darwin, Darwin Core Standard Ratified!

2009-10-09T08:27:00.001-05:00

The TDWG Executive Committee announces the official ratification of Darwin

Core (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm) as a TDWG standard.

Darwin Core joins four other TDWG standards- http://www.tdwg.org/standards/

that provide a reference for sharing information about biodiversity. Lead

author, John Wieczorek, and his co-authors, Markus Döring, Renato de

Giovanni, Tim Robertson, and Dave Vieglais have done an amazing job in

writing, organizing, and dealing with feedback during the review process. We

can only have a small insight into the effort that John and his team have

invested in Darwin Core.

We also appreciate the work that Gail Kampmeier has done as Review Manager

since her appointment in February 2009. There was an initial peer review

followed by two months of public review, punctuated by ongoing discussions

and periodic updating of the draft standard now being ratified by the TDWG

Executive Committee.

John, Markus, Renato, Tim, Dave and Gail deserve contributions of good

French wine in Montpellier! Thank you and congratulations to all who

contributed.

Donald Hobern, Chairman, TDWG.

Naming Genes: What's in a Name?

2009-09-24T08:35:00.013-05:00

In 1594, Juliet asserted in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" and certainly words have layers of meanings and associations that not only Shakespeare could devise. And so it is with those naming genes, on the forefront of which are those looking at fly genes, particularly of Drosophila in FlyBase. In this delightful report from the BBC World Service's Discovery, we find out what these scientists are really thinking about as they sort through piles of flies, looking for visual verification of potential genetic anomalies: how might they name their next big discovery. Traditions are born in various laboratories for the sometimes quirky, usually informative names bestowed upon new discoveries--will the gene naming equivalant of the Académie française clamp down on this populist movement? The fly geneticists say no!

Thanks to Karyla for this great find!!

7th International Congress of Dipterology

2009-09-21T10:37:00.007-05:00

The first announcement for the 7th International Congress of Dipterology (or IDC7 for short) was just released and the venue and program promise to be spectacular! The Congress Chairman, FLYTREE's own David Yeates, welcomes conferees to the first Diptera Congress in Latin America, from 8-13 August in San Jose, Costa Rica. Manuel Zumbado chairs the organizing committee for this event that will draw those interested in flies from across the globe.

FLYTREE scientists identify the closest relatives of the flies!

2009-07-13T15:52:00.009-05:00

FLYTREE scientists resolve holometabolan insect phylogeny and identify the closest relatives of the Diptera

Wiegmann, B. M., M D. Trautwein, J. Kim, M. Bertone, S. L. Winterton, B. K. Cassel, and D. K. Yeates. (2009). Single-copy nuclear genes resolve the phylogeny of the holometabolous insect orders. BMC Biology 7:34.http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/7/34

A new paper published this month by FLYTREE ATOL scientists proposes a new phylogeny among the holometabolous insect orders and places Diptera as sister group to the Mecoptera + Siphonaptera.

Combined nucleotide data from 6 nuclear genes provides strong evidence for an early split between Hymenoptera and all other Holometabola and places the Strepsiptera as sister group to beetles (Coleoptera), arguing against previous molecular and developmental hypotheses.

These new data are used to estimates the evoutionary age of splits among the major insect orders including Diptera.. which had their origin in the Permian or earliest Triassic approximately 255 mya.

These exciting results are featured on the 'front page' of BMC Biology and are accompanied by an essay by Dr. Alessandro Minelli on the importance of robust phylogenetic understanding for accurate interpretation of developmental pathways and patterns.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/7/36

Supertrees & the Tree of Life

2009-06-17T11:11:00.008-05:00

Just published in Invertebrate Systematics is the journal's featured paper:

Lambkin C.L., Trueman J.W.H., Yeates D.K., Holston K.C., Webb D.W., Hauser M., Metz M.A., Hill H.N., Skevington J.H., Yang L., Irwin M.E., Wiegmann B.M. (2009) Supertrees and the Tree of Life: generating a metaphylogeny for a diverse invertebrate family (Insecta : Diptera : Therevidae) using constraint trees and the parsimony ratchet to overcome low taxon overlap. Invertebrate Systematics 23, 171–191.

See the abstract at http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/120/paper/IS08035.htm and don't forget to also check out the beautiful cover of this issue, which sports J. Marie Metz's amazing illustration of a xestomyzine therevid, Henicomyia sp., from Guatemala.

Contact Christine.LambkinATqm.qld.gov.au for a copy of this landmark paper.

Milichiid flies caught mugging ants

2009-05-06T16:00:00.004-05:00

Who knew flies could be thugs? Once again, Alex Wild has caught flies in the act, this time robbing ants of their food in Kwazulu-Natal. Read the details and see the marvelous photography in this blog post, which features FLYTREE collaborator, Irina Brake, as the Milichiidae expert!

Phorid Flies Provide Death from the Skies

2009-04-13T19:45:00.004-05:00

Featured in ScienceBlog's first monthly rotating photo blog, Photo Synthesis, is Alex Wild, whose photography of the insect world, and ants in particular is worthy of insect centerfolds. In this particular entry, he captures phorid flies (Pseudacteon sp.) trolling a fire ant colony for a candidate whose head will roll...

Diptera Diversity: Status, Challenges and Tools

2009-03-18T08:14:00.004-05:00

Published today, this new 460 page book, Diptera Diversity: Status, Challenges and Tools was edited by Thomas Pape, Daniel Bickel, and Rudolf Meier and features chapters by many of the FLYTREE principal investigators and collaborators. The concept for this much anticipated book grew out of the 2002 International Congress of Dipterology in Brisbane, Australia. It features sections on regional diversity of Diptera fauna; case studies, ecological approaches & estimation; and bioinformatics and dipteran diversity (pdf of table of contents).

Drosophila or Sophophora?

2009-03-12T16:21:00.006-05:00

"One interesting high impact dipterological discussion popping up on science news sites is the nomenclatural snafu that is Drosophila melanogaster. In a sentence, if melanogaster Meigen was not a model organism but still was part of a modern systematic revision, it would not be in the genus Drosophila." ...

So begins a post by Keith Bayless in the excellent North Carolina State Insect Museum blog. Check out the rest of the article about this controversy of one of the work horses of the arthropod world!

2009 Field Meeting of the North American Dipterists Society

2009-03-12T14:45:00.004-05:00

Mark your calendars for the 2009 NADS Field Meeting! The Meeting will be held from 1-4 June 2009, based in Crescent City, California, organized by Peter Kerr and the rest of the dipterists (Steve Gaimari, Martin Hauser, Alessandra Rung) at the California Department of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento. Laboratory and presentation facilities will be provided by The College of the Redwoods, Del Norte campus, in Crescent City. Participants making flight arrangements are advised to fly into Arcata, CA (ACV; 1 hour south of Crescent City), Medford, Oregon (MFR; 2 hours northeast of Crescent City), or Eugene, Oregon (EUG; 4 hours north of Crescent City), then arrange for a rental car. Crescent City is approximately 6 hours north of San Francisco, California. The area is surrounded by a number of protected areas including Tolowa Dunes State Park, Lake Earl State Wildlife Area, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Contact the organizers (below) for details about accommodations. The meeting registration fee is $20/person, and $10/accompanying person if they will be attending group functions. Please contact Peter Kerr (pkerr@cdfa.ca.gov) or Steve Gaimari (sgaimari@cdfa.ca.gov) as soon as possible if you intend to come to the Meeting, and if you would like to give a presentation on current research topics or activities involving Diptera. We hope for a lively set of presentations, as well as fantastic collecting in this beautiful part of California! More details will be given in the April issue of Fly Times, but by then time will be tight!

FLYTREE joins EDIT's The (new) Diptera site

2008-03-21T23:00:00.004-05:00

The FLYTREE project has become a group within the EDIT (European Distributed Institute for Taxonomy) Diptera Exemplar, taking advantage of EDIT's aim at unifying revisionary taxonomy on the web. FLYTREE collaborator, Irina Brake, with EDIT at the Natural History Museum, London, is coordinating both the Diptera and Insect exemplars. Much of the content from F. Christian Thompson's pioneering Diptera.org has now moved to form the core of The (New) Diptera Site. Image galleries feature stunning photos by Steve Marshall as well as photos of BMNH dipterists in 1974. Registered users from the Diptera community can add to or modify existing content, import a bibliography, start a conversation about taxonomic concepts in the forum, create an image gallery, and disseminate knowledge about their favorite groups of Diptera. Guests can browse contributed content and read fly-related RSS news feeds aggregated from uBio.

This collaborative environment for "getting biodiversity on the web" is called a Scratchpad. It has a sandbox or trial area for experimenting while you learn the system, as well as helpful training videos illustrating features of this Drupal-based content management system.

Crane fly haikus!

2008-03-17T08:29:00.003-05:00

There's something about the leggy, gangly crane fly (Diptera: Tipulidae) that inspires the Japanese poetry art form, the haiku. North Carolina State Insect Museum's Andy Deans contributes whimsical haikus on this family of flies for the contest that closes with the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere.

FLYTREE students feature research

2008-02-25T13:11:00.006-06:00

FLYTREE and North Carolina State University students, Michelle Trautwein, Matt Bertone, Keith Bayless, and Whitney Swink, are featured in the NC State University's Insect Museum blog

"On the Fly" wins Whitley Book Award

2007-10-02T13:17:00.000-05:00

Dr. David Yeates (Australian Biological Resources Study Center for Biological Information Technology) proudly accepted the 2007 Whitley Book Awards Certificate of Commendation from the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales for the CD-based "On The Fly: The Interactive Atlas and Key to Australian Fly Families," judged by the Society to be the best book in the category, "Interactive Atlas and Key." More...

Finding Foureyes

2007-04-20T09:56:00.000-05:00

A major effort in the quest to complete the FLYTREE research for the second tier of taxa has been to search the globe for representatives of each fly family so that fresh material can be used for DNA sequencing and morphological scoring. The project has often relied on our collaborators, who are scattered around the world, to obtain members of critical, localized families. One such family, the Perissommatidae (see Figures) had eluded the Australian FLYTREE team for the first few years of the grant. The family is only known from a handful of species found in southeastern Australia and Chile. Specimens are uncommon in collections, but the type locality of one species in this family is close to Canberra, Australia, based on specimens collected by Don Colless in the southern hemisphere winter over 40 years ago. Morphological data has not provided compelling evidence for the phylogenetic position of Perissommatidae, and no recent material had been collected for further studies. The adults have broad, mottled wings and bizarre compound eyes divided into separate dorsal and ventral sections.

Establishing the phylogenetic position of the Perissommatidae in the Lower Diptera is an important goal of FLYTREE. The Australian FLYTREE team searched the type locality for two years in a row without success, and began to believe that the extended drought conditions in Australia may have caused a local extinction of the species. However, a volunteer in the Diptera section of the Australian National Insect Collection, David Ferguson, came to the rescue. He established a winter Malaise trapping program in Tallaganda National Park, part of a range of mountains just to the east of Canberra, to snare the elusive Perissomma. In July 2006, David found a series of adults of Perissomma mcalpinei in a trap placed in a tall, moist woodland forest at 1150 m altitude. Subsequently, numerous adults were hand netted at the site. Specimens preserved in 100% ethanol were sent to Brian Wiegmann’s lab at North Carolina State University, and his Ph.D. student, Matt Bertone, obtained DNA sequences and by the end of July 2006, he was able to place the Perissommatidae in his molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Lower Diptera. Matt will be publishing his results in 2007, and The Australian Entomologist has just accepted a paper by David Ferguson, reporting on the behavioural observations of adult Perissommatidae.

This example demonstrates how much we rely on the energy and enthusiasm of FLYTREE collaborators. Great work, Dave!!

Submitted by David K. Yeates, Co-PI on FLYTREE, Assembling the Tree of Life for Diptera.

Nuclear gene development for FLYTREE AToL

2007-01-05T13:33:00.000-06:00

Brian Wiegmann, Norman Barr, and Jungwook Kim have been working on nuclear gene development for the the FLYTREE AToL project (Diptera).

The following is a list of the genes currently being using in FLYTREE:
AATS (~3k)
CAD (~4k)
g6pd (~1k)
GART (~1.4k)
pepck (~700bp)
per (~700bp)
pgd (~800bp)
pug (~1.5k)
sia (~450bp)
snf (~400bp)
stx (~600bp)
tpi (~1k)
18S
28S

Our lab strategies are very similar to (and often based on...) the Regier lab protocols; however, we primarily use genomic DNA as a starting template, and only use RT PCR for individual freshly preserved taxa that have proven difficult to amplify. This often means multiple rounds of taxon specific primer design and testing.

We are developing and testing primers for two additional genes: pug and stx.

We have tried a number of other genes in the Regier lab list without much success. In the above list, GART is very difficult to work with because it has unpredictable introns, unpredictable AA sequence variation, and a large internal repeat. We divide AATS and CAD into smaller sized fragments for amplification. These segments of AATS and CAD provide differing levels of success in different taxa, and so can also be challenging.

--
Jungwook Kim, Ph. D.
FLYTREE postdoc
Department of Entomology
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695