''Drosophila differens'' is an

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

species of Hawaiian fly in the family

Drosophilidae The Drosophilidae are a diverse, cosmopolitan family of flies, which includes species called fruit flies, although they are more accurately referred to as vinegar or pomace flies. Another distantly related family of flies, Tephritidae, are true f ...

. This species is a member of the ''planitiba'' subgroup of the picture-wing clade of Hawaiian ''Drosophila''. It is found on the island of

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...

Description

''Drosophila differens'' was described by D. Elmo Hardy and Kenneth Y. Kaneshiro in 1975. This fly is very similar to its

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

relative, '' D. planitibia'', though most individuals of ''D. differens'' has a yellow face while ''D. planitibia'' have a black face. However, Hardy and Kaneshiro report that it is difficult to find any consistently distinguishing character. These two species are capable of hybridizing, but crosses in both directions produce sterile males. ''D. differens'' is larger than many other picture-wing species. It is reported to breed in the rotting bark of ''

Clermontia The Hawaiian lobelioids are a group of flowering plants in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae, subfamily Lobelioideae, all of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This is the largest plant radiation in the Hawaiian Islands, and indeed t ...

'' species.

Conservation

''Drosophila hemipeza'' was listed as federally endangered in 2006 along with ten other species of picture-wing ''Drosophila''. Threats to the conservation of ''D. hemipeza'' include loss-of-habitat, in part due to invasive pigs and rats, as well as introduced predators such as yellowjacket wasps. Invasive plants such as ''

Psidium cattleianum ''Psidium cattleyanum (World Plants : Psidium cattleianum)'', commonly known as Cattley guava, strawberry guava or cherry guava, is a small tree (2–6 m tall) in the Myrtaceae (myrtle) family. The species is named in honour of English hor ...

'' also threaten the conservation of ''D. differens'' by overwhelming native species and outcompete them for access to light. On Molokai, non-native

axis deer The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also known as the spotted deer, chital deer, and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described and given a binomial name by German naturalist Johann Christian Po ...

threaten native ecosystems by trampling and overgrazing native plants.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14588137 differens Insects described in 1975 Endangered insects ESA endangered species Insects of Hawaii