Phylogeny of Phorinae sensu latu (Diptera: Phoridae) inferred from a morphological analysis with comprehensive taxon sampling and an uncommon method of character coding

Author(s)

Ament, Danilo Cesar

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY; v. 181, n. 1, p. 151-188, SEP 2017.
• Web of Science Citations: 2

Abstract

Few comprehensive works have dealt with supra-generic relationships of the Phoridae. These resulted in different classifications, especially regarding the composition and internal relationships of the subfamily Phorinae. Although a consensus regarding Phorinae delimitation seems to have been recently achieved, relationships among the genera in this subfamily are still contentious. The present analysis intended to recover the relationships between Phorinae genera recognizing well-supported groups within this subfamily. A strategy distinct to those previously applied to this problem was conducted. Most characters proposed in the literature were verified and included - even those previously considered `highly homoplastic'. Characters were re-delimited or re-coded when necessary and new characters were also proposed. Characters were coded according to hierarchical hypotheses of homology in cases of special state-spaces. Taxonomic sampling was designed to represent as best as possible the morphological diversity of the characters chosen and to reduce possible long branches. This included the first inclusion of 34 fossil Phorinae taxa in a phylogenetic analysis of the subfamily. The matrix consisted of 125 characters from 141 taxa and resulted in three most-parsimonious trees. The strict consensus of these trees corroborated several large groups that had been previously proposed in similar or equal compositions, including Euphorida, Neophorida, Phorinae s.l., Bothroprosopagroup, Thaumatoxena-group and Hypocera-subgroup. It also revealed several new well-supported small groups of genera and large clades. The results showed that there is indeed relevant phylogenetic information in characters previously thought to be highly homoplastic, and that these characters can be optimized with reasonable congruence when analysed with thorough taxonomic sampling. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/16528-4 - Taxonomy of the genus Phora Latreille based on the LACM collection
• Grantee: Danilo César Ament
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 11/03563-0 - Cladistics analysis of the subfamily Phorinae (Diptera: Phoridae)
• Grantee: Danilo César Ament
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate