Abstract
Muscid species of the ‘Spilogona contractifrons species-group’ (Spilogona alticola (Malloch, 1920), S. arctica (Zetterstedt, 1838), S. contractifrons (Zetterstedt, 1838), S. orthosurstyla Xue & Tian, 1988) and of the ‘Spilogona nitidicauda species-group’ (S. nitidicauda (Schnabl, 1911), S. hissarensis Hennig, 1959, S. imitatrix (Malloch, 1921), S. platyfrons Sorokina, 2018) are notoriously difficult to distinguish. In this paper, their morphological features are analysed, images of the male head, frons and abdomen of all the species are given, and the male terminalia are figured. The study of extensive material has shown that all the morphologically recognised species in each of these groups are valid species. An identification key is provided for both groups of species. To confirm the morphological differences, genetic differences in the cytochrome oxidase I gene of flies of the ‘Spilogona contractifrons species-group’ and of the ‘Spilogona nitidicauda species-group’ were analysed. It is shown that members of both groups of species have not only distinguishing morphological characters but also fixed substitutions in the DNA sequences. Since a low interspecific polymorphism is known in the Muscidae Latreille, 1802, the revealed genetic distances confirm the existence of separate species or subspecies in each of the groups studied.
Highlights
The genus Spilogona Schnabl, 1911 is one of the most speciose genera of the Muscidae Latreille, 1802 and is dominant both in the number of species and in the number of individuals in cold habitats, suchEuropean Journal of Taxonomy 484: 1–26 (2018)as the high-mountain and latitudinal tundra (Sorokina 2012a, 2012b, 2013a, 2013b, 2017; Sorokina & Khruleva 2012).This genus has been most comprehensively studied in the Nearctic Region, in particular in the territory of northern Canada and Alaska (Huckett 1965)
The analysis of genetic distances based on the differences in the cytochrome oxidase I gene in members of the ‘Spilogona contractifrons species-group’ and the ‘Spilogona nitidicauda species-group’ confirmed that there are morphological differences and genetic differences between closely related species
Our results with the DNA analysis of the c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene have demonstrated that S. alticola, S. contractifrons and S. arctica are not synonymous because the genetic differences between individuals of these species persist in geographically distant locations (Fig. 6)
Summary
The genus Spilogona Schnabl, 1911 is one of the most speciose genera of the Muscidae Latreille, 1802 and is dominant both in the number of species and in the number of individuals in cold habitats, suchEuropean Journal of Taxonomy 484: 1–26 (2018)as the high-mountain and latitudinal tundra (Sorokina 2012a, 2012b, 2013a, 2013b, 2017; Sorokina & Khruleva 2012).This genus has been most comprehensively studied in the Nearctic Region, in particular in the territory of northern Canada and Alaska (Huckett 1965). The tundra zones of the Palaearctic Region have not been studied for a long time, and the number of known species of Spilogona for these territories is significantly less (66) (Hennig 1959a, 1959b, 1959c). Recent papers on this genus have increased the number of Palaearctic species to 90, whilst the number of Nearctic species has decreased to 86 (Sorokina 2018).
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