Drosophila gentica, one of two newly-recognized fruit flies in Los Angeles. Photo by Kelsey Bailey, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
A group of researchers from the U.S. and Australia have announced the completely unexpected discovery of two exotic fruit flies in urban Los Angeles in a paper appearing in the journal PLOS ONE. The species were not previously known to exist in the U.S.
“I was as surprised as anyone when such unusual flies were found in our samples,” said Brian Brown, entomology curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and one of this study’s coauthors. “But urban biodiversity is an almost unknown frontier.”
Flies in the insect genus Drosophila — commonly known as fruit flies or vinegar flies — are among the world’s most-studied organisms. More than 16,000 research papers were published in the last five years with the word “Drosophila” in the title. Yet we still know little about their natural history, this study shows.
One of the newly-noted species, Drosophila gentica, was the second-most common fruit fly in the Los Angeles survey. This species was described in 1962 based on specimens collected in El Salvador in 1954, the first and last time it was recorded anywhere until now.