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Molecular phylogeny of the horse flies: a framework for renewing tabanid taxonomy
Author(s) -
MORITA SHELAH I.,
BAYLESS KEITH M.,
YEATES DAVID K.,
WIEGMANN BRIAN M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
systematic entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1365-3113
pISSN - 0307-6970
DOI - 10.1111/syen.12145
Subject(s) - biology , monophyly , zoology , clade , systematics , phylogenetics , evolutionary biology , molecular phylogenetics , lineage (genetic) , taxonomy (biology) , genetics , gene
Horse flies, family T abanidae, are the most diverse family‐level clade of bloodsucking insects, but their phylogeny has never been thoroughly explored using molecular data. Most adult female T abanidae feed on nectar and on the blood of various mammals. Traditional horse fly classification tends towards large heterogeneous taxa, which impede much‐needed taxonomic work. To guide renewed efforts in the systematics of horse flies and their relatives, we assembled a dataset of 110 exemplar species using nucleotide data from four genes—mitochondrial CO1 , and nuclear 28S , CAD and AATS . All commonly recognized tribes in T abanidae are represented, along with outgroups in T abanomorpha. The phylogeny is reconstructed using Bayesian inference, and divergence times are estimated using B ayesian relaxed clock methods with time constraints from tabanid fossils. Our results show A thericidae strongly supported as the lineage most closely related to T abanidae, and P angoniinae and T abaninae as monophyletic lineages. However, C hrysopsinae is nonmonophyletic, with strong support for both a nonmonophyletic B ouvieromyiini and for R hinomyzini as sister to T abaninae. Only the tribes P hilolichini, C hrysopsini, R hinomyzini and H aematopotini are recovered as monophyletic, although S cionini is monophyletic with exclusion of the peculiar genus Goniops A ldrich. Mycteromyia P hilippi and Adersia A usten, two enigmatic genera sometimes placed in separate family‐level groups, are recovered inside P angoniini and C hrysopsini, respectively. Several species‐rich genera are not recovered as monophyletic, including Esenbeckia R ondani , Silvius M eigen, Dasybasis M acquart and Tabanus L. Tabanidae likely originated in the C retaceous, and all major extant groups were present by the early P alaeogene. This newly revised phylogenetic framework for T abanidae forms the basis for a new assessment of tabanid diversification and provides context for understanding the evolution of trophic specialization in horse flies.