Cladistic revision of talitroidean amphipods (Crustacea, Gammaridea), with a proposal of a new classification

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a cladistic analysis of the Talitroidea s.l. , which includes about 400 species, in 96 genera distributed in 10 families. The analysis was performed using paup and was based on a character matrix of 34 terminal taxa and 43 morphological characters. Four most parsimonious trees were obtained with 175 steps (CI = 0.617, RI = 0.736). A strict consensus tree was calculated and the following general conclusions were reached. The superfamily Talitroidea is elevated herein as infraorder Talitrida, which is subdivided into three main branches: a small clade formed by Kuria and Micropythia (the Kurioidea), and two larger groups maintained as distinct superfamilies (Phliantoidea, including six families, and Talitroidea s.s ., including four). Within the Talitroidea s.s. , the following taxonomic changes are proposed: Hyalellidae and Najnidae are synonymized with Dogielinotidae, and treated as subfamilies; a new family rank is proposed for the Chiltoniinae.