New Cretaceous empidoids and the Mesozoic dance fly revolution (Diptera: Empidoidea)

Thumbnail image

Download files

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12536

Language of the publication
English
Date
2023-04-20
Type
Article
Author(s)
  • Badano, Davide
  • Sinclair, Bradley J.
  • Zhang, Qingqing
  • Palermo, Francesca
  • Pieroni, Nicola
  • Maugeri, Laura
  • Fratini, Michela
  • Cerretti, Pierfilippo
Publisher
Wiley

Abstract

Dance flies and relatives (Empidoidea) are a diverse and ecologically important group of Diptera in nearly all modern terrestrial ecosystems. Their fossil record, despite being scattered, attests to a long evolutionary history dating back to the early Mesozoic. Here, we describe seven new species of Empidoidea from Cretaceous Kachin amber inclusions, assigning them to the new genus Electrochoreutes gen.n. (type species: Electrochoreutes trisetigerus sp.n.) based on unique apomorphies among known Diptera. Like many extant dance flies, the males of Electrochoreutes are characterized by species-specific sexually dimorphic traits, which are likely to have played a role in courtship. The fine anatomy of the fossils was investigated through high-resolution X-ray phase-contrast microtomography to reconstruct their phylogenetic affinities within the empidoid clade, using cladistic reasoning. Morphology-based phylogenetic analyses including a selection of all extant family- and subfamily-ranked empidoid clades along with representatives of all extinct Mesozoic genera, were performed using a broad range of analytical methods (maximum parsimony, maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference). These analyses converged in reconstructing Electrochoreutes as a stem-group representative of the Dolichopodidae, suggesting that complex mating rituals evolved in this lineage during the Cretaceous.

Subject

  • Nature and environment

Keywords

  • Diptera,
  • Diptères,
  • Diptères fossiles

Rights

Pagination

337-357

Peer review

Yes

Open access level

Gold

Identifiers

ISSN
1096-0031
0748-3007

Article

Journal title
Cladistics
Journal volume
39
Journal issue
4
Accepted date
2023-03-16
Submitted date
2022-12-30

Citation(s)

Badano, D., Sinclair, B. J., Zhang, Q., Palermo, F., Pieroni, N., Maugeri, L., Fratini, M., & Cerretti, P. (2023). New Cretaceous empidoids and the Mesozoic dance fly revolution (Diptera: Empidoidea). Cladistics, 39(4), 337-357. https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12536

Download(s)

URI

Collection(s)

Plants

Full item page

Full item page

Page details

Date modified: