Phylogeny of Asilidae Inferred from Morphological Characters of Imagines (Insecta: Diptera: Brachycera: Asiloidea)

Abstract

A phylogenetic hypothesis is proposed for higher-level relationships within Asilidae, based on a sample of 158 species from 140 genera representing all 11 previously recognized subfamily taxa and 39 of the 42 tribal taxa and 220 discrete, parsimony informative, morphological characters from all tagmata of the imagines. Cladistic analysis results in 720 most parsimonious trees of 2760 steps in length, and a strict consensus topology of 2965 steps. The strict consensus cladogram is well resolved except for species of Apocleinae and Asilinae, which form a large polytomy. Monophyly of Asilidae is corroborated and supported by five autapomorphies: (1) labella of labium fused to prementum at least ventrally; (2) hypopharynx heavily sclerotized; (3) hypopharynx with dorsal seta-like spicules; (4) labrum short and at most half as long as labium;