Phylogeny of the Limnophilinae (Limoniidae) and early evolution of the Tipulomorpha (Diptera)
Guilherme Cunha RibeiroDepto. Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes 3900, 14040–901. Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Email: ribeirogc@hotmail.com
Invertebrate Systematics 22(6) 627-694 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS08017
Submitted: 11 April 2008 Accepted: 14 November 2008 Published: 22 December 2008
Abstract
Tipulomorpha (crane flies) comprise one of the largest subgroups of Diptera, but its phylogeny at different levels has been poorly explored. This study presents the most comprehensive cladistic analysis of the group ever made, with emphasis on the genera and subgenera of the subfamily Limnophilinae (Limoniidae), assumed to include some of the earliest lineages of Tipulomorpha sensu stricto and therefore important for the understanding of the early patterns in the evolution of the crane flies. Eighty-eight characters of the male imago were scored for 104 exemplar species. The most parsimonious trees were searched using implied weighting, in the framework of a sensitivity analysis with different values of k (2 to 6). The dataset based on the characters of adult male morphology showed high levels of homoplasy and yielded very incongruent and unstable phylogenetic results, which are very sensitive to changes in analytical parameters. In the preferred and most parsimonious phylogenetic hypothesis, the Pediciidae is the sister-group of all other Tipulomorpha sensu stricto. The results indicate the paraphyly of the Limoniidae with respect to the Cylindrotomidae and Tipulidae, which are considered sister-groups. The Limoniidae subfamilies Limnophilinae, Limoniinae and Chioneinae are considered non-monophyletic. The study allowed a reconstruction of the possible ground plan condition of selected features of the adult male morphology of crane flies. The genera/subgenera Epiphragma (Epiphragma), Acantholimnophila, Shannonomyia, Limnophila (Arctolimnophila), Eloeophila, Conosia, Polymera, Polymera (Polymerodes), Prionolabis, Eutonia, Phylidorea (Phylidorea), Metalimnophila, Gynoplistia (Cerozodia), Gynoplistia (Dirhipis), Nothophila, Pseudolimnophila (Pseudolimnophila), Pilaria and Ulomorpha are considered monophyletic, but in general are defined by combinations of very homoplastic character states. Two Temperate Gondwanan clades, (Tonnoirella + (Edwardsomyia + (Tinemyia + (Rhamphophila + (Nothophila))))) and ((Notholimnophila + Bergrothomyia) + (Mesolimnophila + (Chilelimnophila + Ctenolimnophila))) are recovered. The genera Limnophila, Neolimnomyia, Gynoplistia (sensu lato) and Hexatoma (sensu lato) are considered non-monophyletic. The systematic position and some morphological characters of ‘problematic’ taxa, such as Dactylolabis, Elephantomyia, Helius and Atarba are discussed on the light of the proposed phylogeny and the analysis of the characters. Character states are richly illustrated. A detailed study of the morphology of the male genitalia is made, and several genera and species have the morphology of the male genitalia illustrated for the first time.
Additional keywords: comparative morphology, Cylindrotomidae, implied weighting, Limnophilinae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae, Tipulidae.
Acknowledgements
During the years spent in conducting this research, many different people were important, in different phases, to make it possible. This paper is a synthesis of my PhD thesis, made under the advisement of Dr Dalton de Souza Amorim, to whom I am especially indebted. Special thanks to Dr Wayne Mathis for the great support, and for hosting me at the Department of Entomology of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. in 2004. Many thanks to Dr Christian Thompson, for his unconditional support to my work, and for the donation of several reprints and books. I thank Dr Pjotr Oosterbroek for the exchange of ideas and literature, loan of specimens, and for allowing access to his world catalogue of crane flies years before its publication. Many thanks to Dr Jaroslav Starý and Dr Jon Gelhaus, the former for the donation of specimens, and both for sharing their critical views and opinions that greatly improved the final version of this work. I thank my colleague Matthew J. Petersen, also for our exchange of ideas and for the donation of some specimens. I thank Peterson Lásaro Lopes, for his help with the calculation of the Consistency and Retention indexes in TNT. Jon Gelhaus and another anonymous reviewer are very much thanked for the detailed reading of an early version of this text, and for raising deep and significant critiques that greatly improved the quality of its final version. This research was financially supported by a PhD and Post Doc fellowships from FAPESP. My studies at the National Museum of Natural History were funded with a fellowship by CAPES.
Alexander C. P.
(1912) Fulton County (New York) Tipulidae (Dipt.). II. Entomological News 23, 66–73.
Alexander C. P.
(1914) New or little-known Neotropical Hexatomini (Tipulidae, Diptera). Psyche 21, 33–45.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Alexander C. P.
(1920) The crane-flies of New York. Part II. Biology and phylogeny. Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Memoirs 38, 691–1133.
Alexander C. P.
(1922) New or little-known Tipulidae (Diptera). IX. Australasian species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 9(9), 297–315.
Alexander C. P.
(1924) New or little-known Tipulidae (Diptera). XXI. Australasian species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 9(13), 359–380.
Alexander C. P.
(1928) New of little-known Tipulidae (Diptera). XXXVII. Australasian species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 10(1), 82–108.
Alexander C. P.
(1929) Diptera of Patagonia and South Chile. Part I. Crane-flies (Tipulidae, Trichoceridae, Tanyderidae). Diptera of Patagonia and South Chile 1, 1–240.
Alexander C. P.
(1948a) Notes on the tropical American species of Tipulidae (Diptera). IV. The primitive Hexatomini: Paradelphomyia, Austrolimnophila, Epiphragma, Lecteria, Polymera, and allies. Revista de Entomología 19, 149–190.
Alexander C. P.
(1948b) Notes on the tropical American species of Tipulidae (Diptera). V. The Specialized Hexatomini: Limnophila, Shannonomyia, Gynoplistia, Hexatoma, Atarba, Elephantomyia, and allies. Revista de Entomología 19, 509–556.
Alexander C. P.
(1956) Tipulidae Ruwenzori Expedition (1934–35) 1, 129–380.
Alexander C. P.
(1963) The crane flies of Angola (families Ptychopteridae and Tipulidae; Diptera). Publicações Culturais da Companhia de Diamantes de Angola 66, 11–44.
Alexander C. P.
(1966) New subgenera and species of crane-flies from California (Ptychopteridae and Tipulidae: Diptera). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 92, 103–132.
Alexander C. P.
(1969) A revision of the Tropical American species of the genus Lecteria Osten-Sacken (Tipulidae: Diptera). Studia Entomologica 12(1–4), 321–340.
Amorim D. S., Yeates D. K.
(2006) Pesky gnats, ridding dipteran classification of the “Nematocera”. Studia Dipterologica 13, 3–9.
Belokobylskij S. A.,
Zaldivar-Riverón A., Quicke D. L. J.
(2004) Phylogeny of the genera of the parasitic wasps subfamily Doryctinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) based on morphological evidence. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 142, 369–404.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bertone M. A.,
Courtney G. W., Wiegmann B. W.
(2008) Phylogenetics and temporal diversification of the earliest true flies (Insecta: Diptera) based on multiple nuclear genes. Systematic Entomology 33, 668–687.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bigot M.
(1854) Essai dúne classification générale et synoptique de l’ordre des insectes diptères (3e memoire). Tribu de Tipulidii (mihi). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 2(3), 447–482.
Blagoderov V.,
Grimaldi D. A., Fraser N. C.
(2007) How time flies for flies: Diverse Diptera from the Triassic of Virginia and early radiation of the order. American Museum Novitates 3572, 1–39.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Brodo F. A.
(1967) A review of the subfamily Cylindrotominae in North America (Diptera, Tipulidae). Kansas University Science Bulletin 47, 71–115.
Brodo F. A.
(1987) A revision of the genus Prionocera (Diptera: Tipulidae). Ecological Monographs 8, 1–93.
Crampton G. C.
(1925) Evidence of relationship indicated by the thoracic sclerites of certain Eriopterine Tipuloid Diptera. Insecutor Inscitiae Menstruus 13, 197–213.
De Jong H.
(1989) A revision of the South American taxa Elnoretta Alexander, Euvaldiviana Alexander and Valdiviana Alexander (Diptera: Tipulidae), with a discussion on their phylogeny. Systematic Entomology 14, 243–257.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
De Jong H.
(1993) The phylogeny of the Nephrotoma flavescens species group (Diptera: Tipulidae). Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 136, 235–256.
De Jong H.
(1994a) The phylogeny of the Tipula (Acutipula) maxima species group, with notes on its distribution (Diptera: Tipulidae). Entomologica Scandinavica 24, 433–457.
De Jong H.
(1994b) The phylogeny of the subgenus Tipula (Savtshenkia) (Diptera: Tipulidae), with special reference to the western Mediterranean fauna. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 137, 271–323.
De Jong H.
(1995a) The phylogeny of the Tipula (Lunatipula) bullata and falcata species groups (Diptera: Tipulidae). Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 138, 245–267.
De Jong H.
(1995b) The phylogeny of the subgenus Tipula (Mediotipula) (Diptera: Tipulidae). Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 138, 269–282.
De Jong H.,
Oosterbroek P.,
Gelhaus J.,
Reusch H., Young C.
(2008) Global biodiversity of craneflies (Insecta, Diptera: Tipulidea or Tipulidae sensu lato) in freshwater. Hidrobiologia 595, 457–467.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Edwards F. W.
(1923) A preliminary revision of the crane-flies of New Zealand (Anisopodidae, Tanyderidae, Tipulidae). Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 54, 265–352.
Edwards F. W.
(1938) British short-palped craneflies. Taxonomy of adults. Transactions of the Society for British Entomology 5, 1–168.
Friedrich M., Tautz D.
(1997) Evolution and phylogeny of the Diptera: a molecular phylogenetic analysis using 28S rDNA. Systematic Biology 46, 674–698.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
CAS |
PubMed |
Gelhaus J. K.
(2005) Systematics and biogeography of the desert crane fly subgenus Tipula (Eremotipula) Alexander. Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 46, 1–235.
Giribet G.
(2003) Stability in phylogenetic formulations and its relationship to nodal support. Systematic Biology 52, 554–564.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Goloboff P. A.
(1993) Estimating character weights during tree search. Cladistics 9, 83–91.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Krzeminski W.
(1992) Triassic and Lower Jurassic stages of Diptera Evolution. Mitteilungen der Schweizerische Entomologische Gesellschaft 65, 39–59.
Krzeminski W., Krzeminska E.
(2003) Triassic Diptera: descriptions, revisions and phylogenetic relations. Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 46, 153–184.
Nixon K. C., Carpenter J. M.
(1993) On outgroups. Cladistics 9, 413–426.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Oosterbroek P.
(1980) The western palaearctic species of Nephrotoma Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Tipulidae), Part 5. Phylogeny and Biogeography. Beaufortia 358, 311–394.
Oosterbroek P., Courtney G.
(1995) Phylogeny of the nematocerous families of Diptera (Insecta). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 115, 267–311.
Oosterbroek P., Theowald B.
(1991) Phylogeny of the Tipuloidea based on characters of larvae and pupae (Diptera, Nematocera), with an index to the literature except Tipulidae. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 134, 211–267.
Peterson A.
(1916) The head capsule and mouth-parts of Diptera. Illinois Biological Monographs 3(2), 1–113.
Pritchard G.
(1983) Biology of Tipulidae. Annual Review of Entomology 28, 1–22.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Rees B. E., Ferris G. F.
(1939) The morphology of Tipula reesi Alexander (Diptera: Tipulidae). Microentomology 4, 143–178.
Ribeiro G. C.
(2003) Systematics of the Neotropical species of Styringomyia Loew (Diptera: Tipulomorpha: Limoniidae). Zootaxa 253, 1–35.
Ribeiro G. C.
(2005) A review of the subgenus Cladolipes Loew in the Neotropics (Diptera: Limoniidae: Limnophilinae: Hexatoma). Studia Dipterologica 12, 79–85.
Ribeiro G. C.
(2006) Homology of the gonostylus parts in crane flies, with emphasis on the families Tipulidae and Limoniidae (Diptera, Tipulomorpha). Zootaxa 1110, 47–57.
Ribeiro G. C.
(In press) The Neotropical genus Stibadocerina Alexander and its phylogenetic relationship to other Stibadocerinae genera: further evidence of an ancestral trans-Pacific biota. Systematic Entomology. ,
Ribeiro G. C., Amorim D. S.
(2002) A review of the genus Elephantomyia Osten Sacken in Brazil, with description of two new species (Diptera: Tipulomorpha, Limoniidae). Zootaxa 46, 1–16.
Shcherbakov D. E.,
Lukashevich E. D., Blagoderov V. A.
(1995) Triassic Diptera and initial radiation of the order. An International Journal of Dipterological Research 6(2), 75–115.
Starý J.
(1992) Phylogeny and classification of Tipulomorpha, with special emphasis on the family Limoniidae. Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 35, 11–36.
Tangelder I. R. M.
(1985) Phylogeny of the Nephrotoma dorsalis species-group (Diptera, Tipulidae), mainly based on genital characters. Beaufortia 35, 135–174.
Tangelder I. R. M.
(1988) The biogeography of the holarctic Nephrotoma dorsalis group (Diptera, Tipulidae). Beaufortia 38, 1–35.
Theowald B.
(1984) Taxonomie, Phylogenie und Biogeographie der Untergattung Tipula (Tipula) Linnaeus, 1758 (Insecta, Diptera, Tipulidae). Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 127, 33–78.
Tokunaga M.
(1930) The morphological and biological studies on a new marine cranefly, Limonia (Dicranomyia) monostromia, from Japan. Memoirs of the College of Agriculture
Kyoto University 10, 1–93.