Biometric and molecular methods support a new taxonomy for New World sand flies

Most of the some 400 species of New World phlebotomine sand flies have been classed in 22 subgenera or groups within the genus Lutzomyia. Based on a biometrics analysis of 56 species representing these groups, Galati has ranked each of these taxa by cladistic analysis to indicate evolutionary relationships with these groups with the two other resident genera Brumptomyia and Warileya, as well as the African genus Sergentomyia. With this analysis came clarification of the relationships of a number of ungrouped species and elevation of most of the previous subgenera and groups to generic status. [Teams at Yale University, Smithsonian Institution, and Colombia National Institute of Health are completing the translation of Galati’s work (in Portuguese) to English and Spanish.] Recent molecular comparisons of nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences and mitochondrial genes sequences in 68 Lutzomyia sensu lato species have lent support to the overall Galati scheme. as well as providing additional information on species previously not well characterized. Congruency between the morphometric and molecularly-derived trees degenerates in some groups, providing the basis of further phylogenetic investigation. Detailed attention has been focused on the Verrucarum group (Galati’s genus Pintomyia) to identify cryptic species, to reevaluate relationships amongst closely related species groups and to determine the useful limits of the bar-coding gene cytochrome oxidase I.