| Popis: |
Environmental conditions and anthropogenic activities at various temporal and spatial scales tend to shape the patterns of biodiversity. The family Drosophilidae serves as good bio indicator model in understanding ecological indices and species diversity interactions. The potential of Drosophila to serve as an environmental indicator lies on the cosmopolitan nature of this group and the sensitivity of the flies to environmental variables. This study analyzed the biodiversity of human-commensal Drosophila inhabiting vegetable markets located within the salt water mangrove (SWM), fresh water mangrove (FWM), rain forest (RF) and Southern Guinea Savanna (SGS) vegetation regions of Nigeria. Collections were made from sixteen (l6) vegetable markets using fermented banana as bait. A total of 1,077 fruit flies, composed of four different species of Drosophila belonging to the subgenera Sophophora, Zaprionus and an unidentified species were collected. Drosophila melanogaster of the subgenus Sophophora was predominant (82.5%) in all the sampled vegetation zones while the unidentified fruit fly species was the least (0.7%). The Simpson Diversity Index was lowest (0.13) for Southern Guinea Savanna indicating a higher diversity of fruit flies in the zone. The ecological index of temperature was significantly negatively correlated (-0.965) with Drosophila species diversity while human population was significantly positively correlated (0.832) with biodiversity. The results suggest D. melanogaster as the predominant human-commensal species irrespective of environmental factors and significant impacts of temperature and human population on the biodiversity of human-commensal Drosophila in Nigeria. |
