title: A phylogeny of robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) at the subfamilial level: molecular evidence.
abstract: We present the first formal analysis of phylogenetic relationships among the Asilidae, based on four genes: 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, and cytochrome oxidase II. Twenty-six ingroup taxa representing 11 of the 12 described subfamilies were selected to produce a phylogenetic estimate of asilid subfamilial relationships via optimization alignment, parsimony, and maximum likelihood techniques. Phylogenetic analyses support the monophyly of Asilidae with Leptogastrinae as the most basal robber fly lineage. Apocleinae+(Asilinae+Ommatiinae) is supported as monophyletic. The laphriinae-group (Laphriinae+Laphystiinae) and the dasypogoninae-group (Dasypogoninae+Stenopogoninae+Stichopogoninae+ Trigonomiminae) are paraphyletic. These results suggest that current subfamilial classification only partially reflects robber fly phylogeny, indicating the need for further phylogenetic investigation of this group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. sb38@email.byu.edu
authors.forename: Seth M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bybee
authors.forename: Sean D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Riley Nelson
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Whiting
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002965:Classification; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics*; D019992:Databases as Topic; D004175:Diptera / Q000235:genetics*; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV