Identified three new species of fruit fly.

Flies of this genus are a serious pest that damages crops and causes serious economic losses.

A new study, published in Annals of the Entomological Society of America, identifies three new species of fruit flies, belonging to the genus Acanthiophilus: TO. minor, TO. lowered y A. unique.

Scientists focused on this group to find out more about their phylogeny., i.e., on their kinship relationships with different living beings.

Flies of this genus, that live in Africa, Europe and asia, sometimes They are a serious pest that damages crops and causes serious economic losses. Instead, other Acanthiophilus species are a good control mechanism against overgrowth of weeds.

“This discovery is part of a larger project: a review of Acanthiophilus and the genus of the fruit fly Tephritomyia”, says Elizabeth Morgulis, researcher at the Department of Zoology of the Tel Aviv University (Israel) and co-author of the work.

“When we started our investigation, the hypothesis was that Acanthiophilus and Tephritomyia formed a monophyletic group. Some of the species that were originally assigned to Acanthiophilus actually belonged to other genera and we discovered three undescribed species of this type of fruit flies ", explains the scientist.

According to Morgulis, the next steps in the study of Acanthiophilus include a large-scale cladistic analysis and a molecular phylogenetic analysis that includes gender and other related.

The objective is that it can increase the knowledge of this group and that it can be understood as a whole.

According to researchers, it will also be important find and verify the status of host plants and identify other species of this genus because the team considers that there are still undiscovered flies.