Abstract
European species of the Mycetophila ruficollis group are compared on the basis of morphology and sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) and the ITS2 region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The study represents the first evaluation of morphology-based species delimitation of closely related fungus gnat species by applying molecular information. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the male terminalia are presented along with a key for the identification of all nine European species of the group. Phylogenetic analyses of molecular data generally supported the morphological species discrimination. The barcoding region of COI superseded ITS2 rDNA in resolving species. In the COI barcoding region interspecific differences ranged from 2.9 to 10.6% and the intraspecific distance from 0.08 to 0.8%. Only COI data distinguished between the similar and closely related Mycetophila ichneumonea and Mycetophila uninotata of which the latter was observed to include cryptic species. The host range of some species is suggested to be narrower than previously considered and to depend on the forest type. Presented evidence indicates the importance of analysing sequence data of morphologically very similar mycetophages reared from identified host fungi for elucidating species delimitation as well as their geographic and host ranges. New country records, viz. Estonia for Mycetophila evanida, Georgia for Mycetophila ichneumonea, Mycetophila idonea and Mycetophila ruficollis, and Norway for Mycetophila strobli, widen the known distribution ranges of these species.
Highlights
Mycetophila Meigen, 1803 is one of the largest and earlier described genera among fungus gnats (Diptera: Mycetophilidae)
Mainly that of male terminalia, the studied material was identified to belong to all nine species of the M. ruficollis group known from Europe
This study represents the first evaluation of morphology-based species delimitation of fungus gnats by applying DNA sequence data
Summary
Mycetophila Meigen, 1803 is one of the largest and earlier described genera among fungus gnats (Diptera: Mycetophilidae). The first fungus gnat ever described is today known as Mycetophila fungorum (De Geer, 1776), a widespread and common species in the Palaearctic region. Since more than 650 species from all biogeographical realms have been described in the genus (Bechev 2000, Zaitzev 2003, Oliveira and Amorim 2014). The genus has been divided into several subgenera ( in the Neotropical region: cf Lane 1955) and speciesgroups ( in the Holarctic region: cf Laffoon 1957, Laštovka 1963, 1972, Zaitzev 1999). Neither analyses addressing the intrageneric phylogeny nor keys to all species have yet been provided, with the most exhaustive presented by Laffoon (1957) for the Nearctic species and Zaitzev (2003) for the Palaearctic species
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