Monophyletic blowflies revealed by phylogenomics

Liping Yan,Rudolf Meier,Dong Zhang,Keith M Bayless,Sujatha Narayanan Kutty,Karen Meusemann,Thomas Pape

doi:10.1186/s12915-021-01156-4

Abstract

BackgroundBlowflies are ubiquitous insects, often shiny and metallic, and the larvae of many species provide important ecosystem services (e.g., recycling carrion) and are used in forensics and debridement therapy. Yet, the taxon has repeatedly been recovered to be para- or polyphyletic, and the lack of a well-corroborated phylogeny has prevented a robust classification.ResultsWe here resolve the relationships between the different blowfly subclades by including all recognized subfamilies in a phylogenomic analysis using 2221 single-copy nuclear protein-coding genes of Diptera. Maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP), and coalescent-based phylogeny reconstructions all support the same relationships for the full data set. Based on this backbone phylogeny, blowflies are redefined as the most inclusive monophylum within the superfamily Oestroidea not containing Mesembrinellidae, Mystacinobiidae, Oestridae, Polleniidae, Sarcophagidae, Tachinidae, and Ulurumyiidae. The constituent subfamilies are re-classified as Ameniinae (including the Helicoboscinae, syn. nov.), Bengaliinae, Calliphorinae (including Aphyssurinae, syn. nov., Melanomyinae, syn. nov., and Toxotarsinae, syn. nov.), Chrysomyinae, Luciliinae, Phumosiinae, Rhiniinae stat. rev., and Rhinophorinae stat. rev. Metallic coloration in the adult is shown to be widespread but does not emerge as the most likely ground plan feature.ConclusionsOur study provides the first phylogeny of oestroid calyptrates including all blowfly subfamilies. This allows settling a long-lasting controversy in Diptera by redefining blowflies as a well-supported monophylum, and blowfly classification is adjusted accordingly. The archetypical blowfly trait of carrion-feeding maggots most likely evolved twice, and the metallic color may not belong to the blowfly ground plan.

Highlights

Blowflies are ubiquitous insects, often shiny and metallic, and the larvae of many species provide important ecosystem services and are used in forensics and debridement therapy
We examine the robustness of our conclusions through the use of multiple ortholog reference sets and taxon subsampling
Dref_Ltax Dataset generated with Diptera reference ortholog set 2221 and large taxon sampling

Summary

Introduction

Often shiny and metallic, and the larvae of many species provide important ecosystem services (e.g., recycling carrion) and are used in forensics and debridement therapy. Blowflies (Diptera: Calyptratae, Calliphoridae) are among the most familiar insects to humans [2,3,4]. They are abundant on all continents except Antarctica, and the anthropophilic species are well known for their association with carrion and decaying food (Fig. 1) [6,7,8]. What is less broadly known, and in striking contrast to their cultural prominence, is that there is no consensus resolution as to which oestroid clade should be termed Calliphoridae, because the group has been repeatedly shown to be either para- or polyphyletic based on both molecular and morphological evidence (Fig. 2) [12, 13, 19, 21]

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Conclusion