Molecular phylogeny and timing of evolution of Anthomyza and related genera (Diptera: Anthomyzidae)

• Published in: Zoologica scripta Vol. 48; no. 6; pp. 745 - 760
• Main Authors: Roháček, Jindřich, Petráková, Lenka, Tóthová, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oslo Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.11.2019
• Subjects: Amber; Anthomyza; Anthomyzidae; Baltic amber; Cladistic analysis; Diptera; Divergence; Eocene; Evolution; Flora; Fossils; Hypotheses; Land bridges; Miocene; Mitochondria; Neogene; Oligocene; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Plants; Pleistocene; Quaternary; Sibling species; Taxa; Topology
• ISSN: 0300-3256; 1463-6409
• DOI: 10.1111/zsc.12373

Phylogenetic hypotheses of the relationships of Diptera: Anthomyzidae (61 taxa) are discussed with special reference to the genera Fungomyza Roháček, 1999, Anthomyza Fallén, 1810, Epischnomyia Roháček, 2006 and Arganthomyza Roháček, 2009 based on the analysis of 7 combined mitochondrial + nuclear gene markers in comparison with results of the most recent cladistic analysis of morphological characters. The majority of revealed inter‐ and intrageneric relationships of these genera in both analyses were largely congruent except for the topology of Fungomyza and Arganthomyza being equivocal because of different topologies in phylograms generated by alternative molecular methods and Epischnomyia forming a branch within Anthomyza in the molecular data hypothesis. The formerly unsettled Anthomyza drachma proved to be the sister species of the A. umbrosa group while the affinity of A. flavosterna to the A. bellatrix group has not been confirmed. The first phylogenetic hypothesis of Anthomyzinae to include timing of the nodes of divergence is presented. The origin of the subfamily is dated into the Eocene, ca 37.5 (30.6–45.3) MYA, and agrees with the age of the oldest known fossils from Baltic amber. The analysed members of the Anthomyza group of genera were found to have already evolved in the upper Oligocene. The divergences of the Palaearctic and Nearctic sister species in Arganthomyza and Anthomyza were found to occur at several different times during the Neogene (upper Miocene) to lower Quaternary (Pleistocene), from about 7 to 0.7 MYA. These were likely the result of fragmentation of widespread (Holarctic or Sino‐Japanese–Nearctic) ranges of ancestral taxa by vicariance events that were, in turn, caused by multiple interruptions of Beringia Land Bridges or cooling of climate and seem to be consistent with the times of multiple disjunctions of the flora.