Species of Neosilba ( Diptera : Lonchaeidae ) recorded in citrus-producing region in the state of Pará , Brazil

This work reports on the species of Lonchaeidae obtained from fruits of Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck collected in the citrus-producing region of the state of Pará, Brazil. The species registered were Neosilba glaberrima (Wiedemann), N. pendula (Bezzi, 1919) and N. zadolicha McAlpine & Steyskal, 1982.

A. P. Castilho et al.
Diptera of the family Lonchaeidae, when in the larval stage, infest and damage fruits and vegetables.Some species are reported as primary pests in different crops in Brazil, where the genera Dasiops Rondani and Neosilba McAlpine include those species of economic importance in agriculture (UCHÔA, 2012).
In the Brazilian Amazon, studies on Lonchaeidae are still scarce, although it is known that they have a large number of native and exotic hosts, many of which are found only in wild environments (LEMOS et al., 2015).According to the database Lonchaeidae from Brazilian Amazon (PEREIRA; ADAIME, 2016), 14 species of Neosilba have already been reported for the region, where Neosilba glaberrima (Wiedemann, 1830) and N. zadolicha McAlpine & Steyskal, 1982 are the most polyphagous and are widely distributed in this region of Brazil (STRIKIS et al., 2011;PEREIRA et al., 2016).Although studies on lance flies have increased in recent years in the region, little is known about their ecology and biology (LEMOS et al., 2015).In the state of Pará, for example, only the species N. glaberrima, N. zadolicha and N. pendula (Bezzi, 1919) have been previously recorded (PEREIRA; ADAIME, 2016).
Fruit crops are of importance from a social, economic and ecological perspective in Brazil (IBRAF, 2012), particularly in Pará.The municipality of Capitão Poço, located in the mesoregion of northeastern Pará, is the main producer of oranges [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck, Rutaceae] in North Brazil.In this study, we carried out the first survey of species of Lonchaeidae in different orange production areas in Capitão Poço.
In each crop system, 120 simple samples (1 fruit) and 36 compound samples (10 fruits) were collected, totaling 1,920 fruits (251.83kg).Samples were collected randomly directly from plants or soil (intact, recently fallen), where only plants with good ripening or mature fruits were considered.The procedures recommended by Silva et al. ( 2011) were followed for the collection of the samples in the field, processing of the samples in the laboratory and obtaining the adult insects.The Lonchaeidae specimens obtained were identified by P. C. Strikis according to the work of McAlpine and Steyskal (1982).Voucher specimens were deposited in the personal collection of the third author.
We recorded 45 specimens of Lonchaeidae (17♂ + 28♀), with three species identified: N. glaberrima (15♂), N. pendula (1♂) and N. zadolicha (1♂) (Table 1).The females recorded were identified only at the gender level.These three species had already been reported for Pará, but not in association with C. sinensis nor in the municipality of Capitão Poço.These findings therefore represent the first record of Lonchaeidae in the main citrus-producing region in Pará.
The cultivation systems in which the largest numbers of specimens were obtained were the certified and non-certified organic ones.In conventional cultivation, however, no lance flies were found, very likely due to the excessive use of synthetic chemical insecticides in the orchards.The number of lance flies collected varied over the sampling months, with a maximum of 20 in July (dry period) and zero in November (beginning of the first rains in the region), which may indicate that infestations by Lonchaeidae in the citrus region of Capitão Poço occur during the summer periods, thus a time requiring more attention from citrus growers.