Drosophila serido Vilela & Sene é uma espécie cactofílica e politípica, com ampla distribuição geográfica no Brasil. A morfologia do edeago de indivíduos provenientes de oito populações naturais de D. serido foi avaliada. De acordo com as características dos seus edeagos, as populações de D. serido foram discriminadas com eficiência de aproximadamente 75%. O resultado do teste de Mantel sugere que a divergência morfológica de D. serido é correlacionada com a distância geográfica das populações. A explicação para o padrão observado não é única. Por esta razão, os resultados foram discutidos considerando-se as três principais hipóteses para explicar a evolução do edeago: chave-fechadura, pleiotropia e seleção sexual. Alternativamente, a variabilidade encontrada nos edeagos de D. serido poderia estar relacionada a fatores ambientais, tais como temperatura e/ou cacto hospedeiro.

Drosophila serido Vilela & Sene is a polytypic and cactophilic species with broad geographic distribution in Brazil. The morphology of the aedeagi of eight natural populations of D. serido was analyzed. Based on features of their aedeagi, populations of D. serido were discriminated with an efficiency of nearly 75%. The analysis using the Mantel test suggests that the morphological divergence of D. serido is correlated with the geographic distance among populations. There is no single cause to explain the observed pattern; therefore, the results were discussed considering the three main hypotheses to explain the aedeagus evolution: lock and key, pleiotropy and sexual selection. Alternatively, the aedeagus variability of D. serido might be related to environmental causes, such as temperature and/or host cacti.

We characterized sequences of a novel SSS139 RsaI satellite DNA family in Drosophila gouveai and Drosophila seriema, two members of the Drosophila buzzatii cluster (D. repleta group). The sequences were AT-rich (69%) with a monomer unit length of about 139 bp and contained two direct subrepeats of 14 bp and 16 bp, suggesting that it might have originated by the duplication of smaller sequences. Southern and dot-blot hybridization analyses also detected SSS139 in other Drosophila buzzatii cluster species (D. koepferae, D. antonietae, D. borborema and D. serido) but not in D. buzzatii. These results agree with the marginal phylogenetic position of D. buzzatii within the D. buzzatii cluster.

The repleta group is one of the largest and most complex species groups in the genus Drosophila, representing an important biological model for the elaboration of evolutionary and biogeographical hypotheses on the American Continent. It is divided into six subgroups, of which the fasciola subgroup is the only one with most of its species found in the humid forests of Central and South America. With the aim of understanding the origin and evolution of the fasciola subgroup, and consequently adding information about the repleta group, we analyzed partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of nine Drosophila species (D. carolinae, D. coroica, D. ellisoni, D. fascioloides, D. ivai, D. moju, D. onca, D. rosinae and D. senei). The phylogenetic hypotheses obtained neither defined the relationships between the subgroups of the repleta group nor defined all the interspecific relationships in the fasciola subgroup. We found that the species D. carolinae, D. coroica, D. onca, D. rosinae and D. senei comprised a clade in which D. carolinae, D. onca and D. senei appeared together at a polytomy while D. fascioloides and D. ellisoni comprised another clade with a high bootstrap value.

The Argentinean Chaco region has been considered the center of origin of Drosophila buzzatii in South America because it contains most of the chromosomal polymorphism detected in natural populations. Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the distribution of D. buzzatii in Brazil, one proposing that it has only recently passively colonized Brazil via human dispersal and the other suggesting that D. buzzatii has actively migrated to Brazil some time ago. Data from chromosomal inversions support recent colonization, whereas data from allozymes and mtDNA variation indicate that D. buzzatii has been in Brazil longer, favoring an active dispersal hypothesis. In our present work we analyzed data on 56 South American flies, mostly from Brazil, sequenced for the 5’ end of the mtDNA COI gene. The combined use of many neutrality tests and phylogeographic methods (e.g. nested clade analysis) indicated high gene flow throughout most of the range of D. buzzatii, although significant population structure was still detected. The high nucleotide diversity in the Northeast region of Brazil and the results from the nested clade analysis suggest that D. buzzatii has been in Brazil longer than proposed by the passive dispersal hypothesis. Our data indicate that D. buzzatii has been distributed throughout Brazil and Argentina since the Quaternary, though more data from different localities and markers need to be gathered to determine how the occupation of South America by D. buzzatii has occurred.