Phylogeny of the Rhinocylapus complex (Heteroptera, Miridae, Cylapinae, Fulviini)

Abstract

Cylapinae Kirkaldy, 1903 is a highly diverse lineage of the plant bug family Miridae Hahn, 1831, confined mainly to the tropics. Despite an increasing amount of recent studies on that group, many species remain undescribed and biological data are lacking for most of the taxa. To date, a molecular-based phylogeny has been published only for Rhinomirini Gorczyca, 2000, one out of five Cylapinae tribes. The tribe was rendered as non-monophyletic and the Rhinocylapus Poppius, 1909 complex was transferred to the Fulviini Uhler, 1886. However, phylogenetic relationships within the complex have remained unresolved. In the present study, morphological and molecular data are employed to generate a significantly improved phylogeny of the group compared with previous work. Topologies were constructed using methods of parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference, and were based on an expanded morphological matrix with 65 encoded characters for 38 species and molecular data for 23 species on four markers (COI, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA). As a result, a more resolved phylogeny of the Rhinocylapus complex is presented. A generic synopsis for the representatives of the complex and key to the genera are provided. Taxonomically and phylogenetically important morphological characters for the Rhinocylapus complex and its subgroupings are discussed. Dorsal habitus images, scanning micrographs of selected morphological structures, and illustrations of male and female genitalia are provided for Proamblia Bergroth, 1910, Punctifulvius Schmitz, 1978, Rhinocylapidius Poppius, 1915, Rhinocylapus Poppius, 1909, Rhinomiridius Poppius, 1909, and Yamatofulvius Yasunaga, 2000.