Evidence for transantarctic dispersal or Gondwanan vicariance in Syrphidae

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

7:45 PM – 8:00 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 116/117

Presenting Author(s)

KM

Kevin Moran

Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Co-author(s)

JS

Jeff Skevington

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
AP

Ashton Pooley

Flinders University
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
MV

Michael Valentine

Hillsborough Community College
Tampa, Florida
XM

Ximo Mengual

Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig
Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
SK

Scott Kelso

Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Next generation sequencing, in combination with the dataset preparation pipeline PhyMMR, cuts through the stubborn knot represented by the paraphyletic subfamily Eristalinae (Diptera: Syrphidae) to reveal a new hypothesis of Syrphidae relationships. Eristalinae is revealed as a paraphyletic assemblage of four monophyletic clades: Eristalinae, Merodontinae, Cerioidinae, Volucellinae.
The study utilizes probes developed specifically for use with Syrphidae and samples 1292 orthologous genes. 136 of 145 described genera within Eristalinae are sampled for a total sampling of more than 300 taxa, with the use of pinned museum specimens allowing for inclusion of rarer genera.
Multiple independent Australian-Chilean relationships are revealed, raising the question of whether Syrphidae underwent Trans-Antarctic dispersal or Gondwanan vicariance. In this presentation we explore these relationships in depth.