Cladistic analysis of Cladochaetini (Diptera: Drosophilidae: Drosophilinae), including a taxonomic revision of Diathoneura Duda, 1924

Abstract

The family Drosophilidae family has 4,279 described species in 76 genera, widely distributed throughout the world. This family is of Acalyptratae dipterous that belongs to the superfamily ephydroidea measuring between 1 and 7 mm in length. The literature has a massive investment in research into various aspects of the genus Drosophila Fallen 1823-genomics, aspects of behavior and biology-, but there are still important gaps about the diversity knowledge and systematics of the family, particularly in the Neotropical Region. This project is a contribution to the knowledge of phylogenetic relationship in an important group of Drosophilid-the Cladochaetini tribe, composed of genera Cladochaeta Coquillett, 1900 and Diathoneura Duda, 1924. Cladochaeta is the group with the highest number of species described in the tribe and also received relatively more attention in taxonomic studies. Diathoneura, in turn, has never been reviewed and shows a clear boundary problem and its urgent taxonomic revision. Moreover, it is necessary to test the hypothesis of monophyly of the tribe and of each of its genera, determining if one or both are paraphyletic and its relative position within the tribe. In practice this is to demonstrate if these taxa are sister groups or if one genus corresponds to a sister clade of a subgroup of the other genus. The solution of the problem needs to be done with a proper methodological approach and a broad taxonomic species sampling of both genus and a suitable rooting of the analysis, with the inclusion of species from other genera of drosophilids, as well genera from other families of ephydroidea . Thus, this project aims to review the taxonomy of Diathoneura and to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships within the tribe Cladochaetini. (AU)