First record of \u3ci\u3eDrosophila parthenogenetica\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eD. neomorpha\u3c/i\u3e, cardini group, Heed, 1962 (Drosophila, Drosophilidae), in Brazil

The cardini group of the Quinaria section of the genus Drosophila is composed of 16 Neotropical species. The two focal species of this report, Drosophila parthenogenetica and D. neomorpha, are included in this group, and are placed in the cardini subgroup with seven other species: D. polymorpha, D. cardinoides, D. cardini, D. neocardini, D. acutilabella, D. bedicheki and D. procardinoides (Heed and Krishnamurthy, 1959; Heed, 1962; Heed and Russell, 1971; Wilder et al., 2003). The group is characterized by medium-sized flies with a shiny thorax (Vilela et al., 2002). Different species of the group display different abdominal pigmentation patterns (Hollocher et al., 2000a, b), different degrees of divergence and population structure (Wilder et al., 2003; Wilder et al., 2004) as well as different abilities to colonize multiple niches (Rhode and Valente, 1986; Machado et al., 2001). We have been investigating the southern Brazilian Drosophilid communities since the 1990’s as a system for understanding the impact of territorial range expansions. In this article, we report the movement of two species of the cardini group, D. parthenogenetica and D. neomorpha, into Brazil and discuss the potential impacts of these range expansions may have on the existing Drosophilid communities