Abstract
The molecular-based phylogenetic analysis of the subfamily Tephritinae, the subfamily that contains almost all the cecidogenous species of the family Tephritidae, has reassigned several tribes and groups of genera and modified their concepts based on morphology alone to other tribes and, thus, changed the hypothetical scenarios of evolution of fly/host–plant relations and, in particular, the gall induction in different phylogenetic lineages. Gall induction is shown to arise independently within the Myopitini (in two lineages), Cecidocharini, Tomoplagia group of genera, Eurostini, Eutreta, Tephritis group of genera, Platensinini, Campiglossa group of genera, and Sphenella group of genera independently and more or less synchronously due to the shift to host plants with smaller flower heads and sensitive to larval feeding causing tissue proliferation. This was possibly a result of temporary aridization of the grassy biomes in the Nearctic and Afrotropic regions in the late Miocene or early Pliocene.
Highlights
The so-called “true fruit flies” (Tephritidae) include almost 5,000 species with a wide range of larval feeding preferences: from saprophages under the bark of dead trees or within bamboo culms (Phytalmiinae, Gastrozonini), insect parasitoids (Tachiniscinae) through stem borers in variable herbaceous plants (Blepharoneurinae, Adramini, Trypetina, Zaceratini, and Tephritinae Terelliini), to real fruit feeders (Blepharoneurinae, Ceratitidini, Dacini, Adramini, Carpomyini, Toxotrypanini, and some Trypetinae), borers and seed eaters in the flower heads of Asteraceae, flower and seed feeders of Lamiaceae and Acanthaceae (Tephrellini and Pliomelaenini), and gall inducers predominantly in Asteraceae flower heads, stems, and rhizomes (Tephritinae)
Except for some more recent records of gall induction by tephritids, for example, by Prado et al (2002), Norrbom et al (2010), Warton and Norrbom (2013), Norrbom et al (2013), or Savaris et al (2019), readers should refer to the above summary for further sources of primary data
Gentilini et al (2006) gave an overview of the known fossil record of the superfamily Tephritoidea, which clearly shows that at least one identifiable species of Tephritis closely related to recent species already existed in the Late Miocene of Europe (7 mya)
Summary
The so-called “true fruit flies” (Tephritidae) include almost 5,000 species with a wide range of larval feeding preferences: from saprophages under the bark of dead trees or within bamboo culms (Phytalmiinae, Gastrozonini), insect parasitoids (Tachiniscinae) through stem borers in variable herbaceous plants (Blepharoneurinae, Adramini, Trypetina, Zaceratini, and Tephritinae Terelliini), to real fruit feeders (Blepharoneurinae, Ceratitidini, Dacini, Adramini, Carpomyini, Toxotrypanini, and some Trypetinae), borers and seed eaters in the flower heads of Asteraceae (most Tephritinae), flower and seed feeders of Lamiaceae and Acanthaceae (Tephrellini and Pliomelaenini), and gall inducers predominantly in Asteraceae flower heads, stems, and rhizomes (Tephritinae). Except for some more recent records of gall induction by tephritids, for example, by Prado et al (2002), Norrbom et al (2010), Warton and Norrbom (2013), Norrbom et al (2013), or Savaris et al (2019), readers should refer to the above summary for further sources of primary data. They (and foremost Freidberg, 1984, 1998) reviewed. I review the improvements and most of the available data since 2004, analyze the distribution of cecidogeny throughout the family, and provide new perspective on the evolution of gall-forming tephritids in light of changes to the phylogeny and classification of the subfamily Tephritinae (Korneyev et al, 2005) proposed by Han et al (2006)
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