Abundance and distribution of Korean flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae): Dominant influence of latitude on regional distribution

Abstract

Studies on abundance and distribution at different scales are rare. We examined whether the abundance of flower flies at a site in South Korea was related to the national occupancy and global distribution (distributional extent or range size) and whether the national occupancy was related to global distribution. In global distribution, the influence of two dimensions (latitude and longitude) was analyzed separately. Flower flies were collected by malaise and pitfall traps at a forest gap in South Korea. Data regarding national occupancy and global distribution were obtained from a Korean Flower Fly Atlas. We collected 46 species from the field survey and obtained a list of 119 species from the Korean Flower Fly Atlas. Our results showed that abundance at a site was positively correlated with national occupancy, but not global distribution, and the national occupancy was positively correlated with global distribution, mainly by the latitudinal range size. Finally, our results indicated that the regional distribution of flower flies was influenced by its one-dimensional global distribution.