The Diptera (Insecta) fauna of Brazil: an online system and two centuries of taxonomic progress

Data from the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna provides an overview of the present knowledge of Diptera diversity in Brazil and an insight into the historical development of the taxonomy of a megadiverse animal order in a large country. Diptera represents 9.3% of the known Brazilian fauna, with 1,986 genera and 12,194 valid species in 102 families. The 15 most species-rich families, with over 300 species each, correspond to 66.5% of all Brazilian known species diversity, of which Phoridae is the richest, followed by Tachinidae, and Chironomidae. The number of species reported grew sharply from the late 19^th century. So far, the most productive decade sequence was from 1910 to 1960, when over half of the presently known Brazilian dipterofauna was described. The most productive decade alone was the 2010s, with almost 1,300 species described. Thomas Borgmeier was the most prolific author of species in Brazil (585), followed by Charles Paul Alexander (559), and John Lane (481). Species names based on geographical localities often derive from “Brazil/Brasil” (154), “Amazonia” (57), and “state of São Paulo” (41). The top three honored people with species names are Fritz Plaumann (69), Hugo de Souza Lopes (57), and John Lane (49). In the last 20 years, the number of Brazilian dipterists studying the fauna has increased, with the establishment of several research groups across the country, more authors collaborating in papers describing species, and interconnection between the Brazilian research groups, resulting in more complex studies.

KEY WORDS:
Biodiversity; checklist; flies; Hexapoda; Neotropics; true flies