Search Results (4)

Muscomorpha is one of the most diverse groups in Brachycera, yet its higher-level phylogenetic relationships remain controversial, primarily concerning the monophyly and placement of Syrphoidea, the position of Platypezoidea, internal relationships in Calyptratae and Acalyptratae, and the non-monophyly of Eristalinae in Syrphidae. This study utilized 81 Muscomorpha species, including 22 newly sequenced Syrphidae species, and reconstructed their phylogeny with multiple datasets and models. The results confirmed monophyly of most superfamilies except Syrphoidea, with Platypezoidea as sister to the remaining Muscomorpha. Oestroidea was sister to Muscoidea. Within Syrphidae, Syrphinae monophyly and Syrphini relationships were strongly supported, while Eristalinae was non-monophyletic. Milesiini, Eristalini, Volucellini, Brachyopini, and Rhingiini were monophyletic. Divergence time estimation using MCMCTree indicated that Muscomorpha originated in the Middle Jurassic at approximately 171.66 Mya, with Syrphoidea diverging in the Late Jurassic at 151.05 Mya, Acalyptratae in the Early Cretaceous at 117.50 Mya, Calyptratae in the Late Cretaceous at 84.66 Mya, and Syrphidae at 103.44 Mya. These findings provide a robust phylogenomic framework for Muscomorpha evolution. Full article

Diptera comprises more than 154,000 described species, representing approximately 10–12% of insects. Members have successfully colonized all continents and a wide range of habitats. However, higher-level phylogenetic relationships within Diptera have remained ambiguous. Mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) have been used as valuable molecular markers for resolving phylogenetic issues. To explore the effect of such markers in solving the higher-level phylogenetic relationship of Diptera, we sequenced and annotated the mitogenomes of 25 species, combined with 180 mitogenomes from 33 superfamilies of dipteran insects to conduct a phylogenetic analysis based on the PCGsrRNA and PCGs12rRNA datasets using IQ-TREE under the partition model. The phylogenetic analysis failed to recover the monophyly of the two suborders Nematocera and Brachycera. Two of six infraorders within the Nematocera—Tipulomorpha and Ptychopteromorpha—were monophyletic. The ancestral Deuterophlebiidae were a strongly supported sister group of all remaining Diptera, but Anisopodidae, as the closest relative of Brachycera, received only weak support. Three of four infraorders within Branchycera—Tabanomorpha, Xylophagomorpha, and Stratiomyomorpha—were, respectively, supported as a monophyletic clade, except Muscomorpha due to the strong long-branch attraction between Cecidomyiidae and Nycteribiidae. The inferred infraordinal relationships followed the topology Tabanomorpha + (Xylophagomorpha + (Stratiomyomorpha + Muscomorpha)). However, the proposed topology lacks strong statistical support, suggesting alternative relationships remain plausible. Based on mitogenome data alone, we infer that Diptera originated earlier than the Late Triassic at 223.43 Mya (95% highest posterior density [HPD] 166.60–272.02 Mya) and the earliest brachyeran Diptera originated in the mid-Jurassic (171.61 Mya). Full article

With more than 125,000 described species, Diptera are considered a megadiverse order. However, immatures display great morphological homogeneity, making few species of Diptera from the Cyclorrhaphan group easy to identify. The main species of medical, sanitary, and forensic importance are found in this group, highlighting the relevance of their description. The uniformity of the group limits sensitive techniques for identifying immatures; therefore, this study reports characters that can be used to identify these insects using scanning electron microscopy. Based on an investigation and analysis of the relevant scientific literature, we suggest combining techniques for accurate morphological identifications of flies. Full article

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of two hoverfly species of Korinchia angustiabdomena (Huo, Ren, and Zheng) and Volucella nigricans Coquillett (Diptera: Syrphidae) were determined and analyzed. The circular mitogenomes were 16,473 bp in K. angustiabdomena (GenBank No. MK870078) and 15,724 bp in V. nigricans (GenBank No. MK870079). Two newly sequenced mitogenomes both contained 37 genes, and the gene order was similar with other syrphine species. All the protein-coding genes (PCGs) were started with the standard ATN codons; and most of PCGs were terminated with a TAA stop codon, while ND1 in K. angustiabdomena ended with a TAG codon, and ND5 terminated with truncated T stop codons in both species. The phylogenetic relationship between K. angustiabdomena and V. nigricans with related lineages was reconstructed using Bayesian inference and Maximum-likelihood analyses. The monophyly of each family considered within Muscomorpha was confirmed by the clades in the phylogenetic tree, and superfamily of the Oestroidea (Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae, and Oestridae) was unexpectedly found to be a paraphyletic group based on our selected data. This mitogenome information for K. angustiabdomena and V. nigricans could facilitate future studies of evolutionarily related insects. Full article