Phylogeny of the Sciaroidea (Diptera): the implication of additional taxa and character data

Abstract

A cladistic analysis of the extant Sciaroidea was made, using re-evaluated morphological characters, with some additional taxa and with or without the Mesozoic Mesosciophilidae in the ingroup. When the new data were incorporated, the conflict between our earlier phylogenies, with extant taxa only and with both extant and fossil taxa in the ingroup, was resolved. The present result is similar to the one we reached earlier with extant + fossil taxa, which showed the Cecidomyiidae as the sister group of all other Sciaroidea, instead of the Cecidomyiidae appearing as the sister group of the Mycetophilidae + Sciaridae. In the new hypothesis, the main clades of the Sciaroidea outside the Cecidomyiidae were as follows: Ditomyiidae + (Diadocidiidae + ((Keroplatidae + (((Bolitophilidae + ((((Mesosciophila + (((((Starkomyia + rest of Sciaroidea))))). The placement of the recently described, enigmatic New Zealand genus Starkomyia Jaschhof was similar regardless of whether the fossil Mesosciophilidae were included in the analysis or not. The two stillundescribed Neotropical taxa that we included fell in the Rangomaraminae clade within the Sciaridae. Unlike our earlier result with extant taxa only, and similar to our extant + fossil result, the Ohakunea + Colonomyia clade now appears as the sister group of the MycetophilidaeLygistorrhinidae-Sciaridae lineage.