Evolution of fossil and living spider flies based on morphological and molecular data (Diptera, Acroceridae)

Abstract

The phylogeny of spider flies is presented based on an analysis of DNA sequence data combined with morphological characters for both living and fossil species. We sampled 40 extant and extinct genera across all major lineages of Acroceridae, which were compared with outgroup taxa from various lower brachyceran families. In all, 81 morphological characters of 60 extant and 10 extinct ingroup species were combined with 7.1 kb of DNA sequences of two nuclear (CAD and 28S rDNA) and two mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S rDNA). Results strongly support the monophyly of Acroceridae, with major clades contained within classified here in five extant subfamilies (Acrocerinae, Cyrtinae stat. rev., Ogcodinae stat. rev., Panopinae and Philopotinae) and one extinct subfamily, Archocyrtinae. The evolution of important spider fly traits is discussed, including genitalia and wing venation. The status of the enigmatic Psilodera Gray and Pterodontia Gray as members of the Panopinae is confirmed based on both molecular and morphological data.

Successful extraction of insect DNA from recent copal inclusions: limits and perspectives

“…Species belong to the genus show typical globose body, moderately small head and reduced wing venation. This group is relatively well represented in the fossil record, with some species being quite common in Baltic and Dominican amber deposits 68 . On the contrary, no Ogcodes exemplars are described in Colombian copal assemblages until now.…”

Phylogeny of drepanosiphine aphids sensu lato (Hemiptera, Aphidoidea) inferred from molecular and morphological data

“…Each partition was treated as a separate data block in PartitionFinder version 2, thus preventing the concatenation of data blocks. The whole matrix of morphological and biological characteristics was analyzed under the Mkv evolutionary model ( Lewis 2001 ) combined with gamma-distributed rates (+G) with a shared shape parameter to account for variation in the substitution rates ( Gillung and Winterton 2019 ) ( Supplementary Table S5 ).…”

Una especie nueva de Coquena (Diptera: Acroceridae) de Chile central con una clave para los géneros chilenos de Panopinae

“…El género Coquena Schlinger, 2013 fue descrito con base en una sola especie, C. stangei Schlinger, 2013, cuyos ejemplares tipo fueron recolectados en Tucumán, Argentina. En este trabajo, el autor señaló que de acuerdo con caracteres de la venación alar, antenas insertadas a la mitad de la frente y densa pilosidad sobre el tórax (Gillung y Winterton, 2019), Coquena está cercanamente relacionado con Lasioides Gil Collado, 1928, Pteropexus Macquart, 1846, Eulonchus Gerstaecker, 1856 y Lasia, esto a pesar de que las piezas bucales en estos 4 últimos géneros son alargadas, mientras que en Coquena son reducidas (Schlinger et al, 2013).…”