New record of Drosophila nebulosa Sturtevant, 1916 (Diptera, Drosophilidae) in western Argentina extends its southern distribution

Abstract

In the present work we are reporting for the first time the presence of D. nebulosa in San Juan province enlarging in a south-western direction its Andean distributional range. Our sampling site, San Agustín del Valle Fértil (30° 38’ 1” S, 67° 27’ 59” W) is located at 250 km north-east of the capital city of the province, San Juan. This zone belongs to the Phytogeographic Province known as Monte (Cabrera, 1971) with a vegetation typical of a shrub steppe adapted to warm and arid weather, with periodic droughts of 6 to 9 months a year and mean annual precipitation of 200-250 mm (Mirré, 1976). The vegetation is of a xeric environment, with scarce arboreal vegetation, mainly represented by “algarrobos” (genus Prosopis), and cacti of Echinopsis (cardon) and Opuntia (prickly pear) genera.