Phylogeny of mosquitoes of tribe Culicini (Diptera: Culicidae) based on morphological diversity

Abstract

Harbach, R. E., Kitching, I. J., Culverwell, C. L., Dubois, J. & Linton, Y.‐M. (2012). Phylogeny of mosquitoes of tribe Culicini (Diptera: Culicidae) based on morphological diversity. —Zoologica Scripta, 41, 499–514.Relationships among taxa of the mosquito tribe Culicini are explored using 169 morphological characters from 86 exemplar species representing the four genera and 26 subgenera of Culicini, most species groups and subgroups of subgenus Culex and an outgroup of five species from five other tribes. We analysed the data set, with multistate characters treated as unordered, under implied weights with values of K ranging from 1 to 20, implemented by TNT. Each analysis, except K = 4, produced a single most parsimonious (fittest) cladogram (MPC). The topology of the ingroup was identical for K = 6–11, whereas the MPCs for K = 14–20 differed only in the position of a single species, which occupied the same position in the K = 16 and K = 6–11 topologies. The K = 9 and K = 16 trees were given further consideration. In both these cladograms, Lutzia is sister to a clade comprising genera Culex, Deinocerites and Galindomyia. The two topologies have 13 clades in common, but their arrangements differ primarily because of Culex (Culex) duttoni acting as a ‘rogue’ taxon. We evaluated the effect of removing this species from the K = 9 and K = 16 analyses and chose the refined K = 9 topology as the best hypothesis of relationships within Culicini. Genus Culex is not monophyletic because it includes Deinocerites and Galindomyia as derived members of the New World subgenera. With the exception of subgenera Culex, Eumelanomyia and Neoculex, there is strong support for the monophyly of all genera and subgenera. Subgenus Culex would be monophyletic were four other subgenera included and three other taxa (the Afrotropical Cx. duttoni, Neotropical Cx. apicinus and the Australasian Atriceps Group) excluded.