title: Molecular phylogeny of black fungus gnats (Diptera: Sciaroidea: Sciaridae) and the evolution of larval habitats.
abstract: The phylogeny of the family Sciaridae is reconstructed, based on maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony, and Bayesian analyses of 4809bp from two mitochondrial (COI and 16S) and two nuclear (18S and 28S) genes for 100 taxa including the outgroup taxa. According to the present phylogenetic analyses, Sciaridae comprise three subfamilies and two genus groups: Sciarinae, Chaetosciara group, Cratyninae, and Pseudolycoriella group+Megalosphyinae. Our molecular results are largely congruent with one of the former hypotheses based on morphological data with respect to the monophyly of genera and subfamilies (Sciarinae, Megalosphyinae, and part of postulated "new subfamily"); however, the subfamily Cratyninae is shown to be polyphyletic, and the genera Bradysia, Corynoptera, Leptosciarella, Lycoriella, and Phytosciara are also recognized as non-monophyletic groups. While the ancestral larval habitat state of the family Sciaridae, based on Bayesian inference, is dead plant material (plant litter+rotten wood), the common ancestors of Phytosciara and Bradysia are inferred to living plants habitat. Therefore, shifts in larval habitats from dead plant material to living plants may have occurred within the Sciaridae at least once. Based on the results, we discuss phylogenetic relationships within the family, and present an evolutionary scenario of development of larval habitats.
authors.affiliation: Insect Biosystematics Laboratory, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-921, Republic of Korea. sk83@snu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Seunggwan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Sunghoon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Menzel
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: Heungsik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seunghwan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D004175:Diptera / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D017753:Ecosystem; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial