Progress in the phylogeny and systematics of Calliphoridae (Diptera: Oestroidea): Insights into the subfamily level relationships of the group

Blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are a diverse (1,800 spp.) group of forensic and economic importance due to their larval feeding habits. The family is a member of the clade Oestroidea along with the tachinid, flesh, and bot flies. Resolving the evolutionary relationships among members and related families of Calliphoridae have been problematic, and its monophyly has been questioned since the 1990s. Recently, phylogenomic data sets (Transcriptomes, UCEs) that included up to 2,000 orthologous genes have contributed significantly to the circumscription of the family. As a result, Calliphoridae now comprises a broad monophyletic clade with eight subfamilies, including the former families Rhiniidae and Rhinophoridae. However, these data sets suffer from low taxonomic sampling, and the internal relationships are still controversial. To address the low taxonomic depth of the current data sets, we did a phylogenetic reconstruction of Calliphoridae using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment and close to 200 species of blowflies. This new data broadly supports the topology of the current trees and the new circumscription of the family. The additional taxa offer new insights into the composition of the currently proposed subfamilies and the widely distributed genera Calliphora and Lucilia.