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Citation for Study 2247

About Citation title: "African Dacus (Diptera: Tephritidae): Molecular data and host plant associations do not corroborate morphology-based classifications.".
About This study was previously identified under the legacy study ID S2258 (Status: Published).

Citation

Backeljau T., De meyer M., Virgilio M., White I., M E., & Meyer M. 2009. African Dacus (Diptera: Tephritidae): Molecular data and host plant associations do not corroborate morphology-based classifications. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, null.

Authors

  • Backeljau T.
  • De meyer M.
  • Virgilio M.
  • White I.
  • M E.
  • Meyer M.

Abstract

The genus Dacus Fabricius includes economically important pest fruit flies distributed in the Afrotropical and Indo-Australian regions. Two recent revisions based on morphological characters proposed new and partially discordant classifications synonymyzing / revalidating several subgeneric names and forming species groups. Regardless these efforts, an exhaustive description of phylogenetic relationships among Dacus species could not be possible mainly due to homoplasy and possible convergence in morphological characters. We investigated the molecular phylogeny of African Dacus by sequencing seventy-one representatives of thirty-two species at two mitochondrial (COI, 16S) and a nuclear (period) gene fragments. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred through Bayesian and Maximum Parsimony methods and hypotheses about the monophyly of Dacus subgenera were tested by Shimodaira-Hasegawa tests. Analyses of the single gene fragments reveal that the nuclear gene supports similar conclusions as the two mitochondrial genes. The analyses of the concatenated dataset resolved two major supported groups as well as a number of supported clades and subclades often consisting of different representatives of the currently recognised subgenera. Additionally, specimens of D. humeralis from Eastern and Western African locations formed separate clusters, suggesting cryptic speciation within this taxon. The comparisons between the molecular phylogeny and the morphological classification revealed a number of discrepancies. In the vast majority of cases, the molecular data were not compatible with the monophyly of the currently recognised subgenera. Conversely, the results suggest that Apocynaceae feeders are a monophyletic sister group of species feeding on both Cucurbitaceae and Passifloraceae (Cucurbitaceae feeders being a paraphyletic group). The molecular phylogeny, puts questions regarding the taxonomic position and separation of a number of Dacus species and suggests that host plant choice could could provide substantial support to, and a basis for, a more congruent classification of African Dacus.

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  • Canonical resource URI: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S2247
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