Unravelling the phylogeny of the Chloropidae (Diptera): tribe Elachipterini

The acalyptrate family Chloropidae is a diverse and abundant group of true flies with many morphologically bizarre representatives. The family is divided into three subfamilies: Siphonellopsinae, Chloropinae and Oscinellinae. Two attempts have been made to classify the 3000 described species of the Chloropidae but neither is strongly supported phylogenetically. The Oscinellinae is currently divided into 12 tribes, one of which is the Elachipterini. This tribe has an almost worldwide distribution, although some genera are very limited in their range. There is also a wide range in the number of species per genus. Because of the scarcity of previous phylogenetic analyses, and the age of most museum specimens, morphological characters are an appropriate data set for resolving relationships. I conducted a phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Elachipterini using an exemplar approach and morphological characters of adult specimens. Currently, Elachipterini is comprised of ten genera with over 125 described species. Based on the analyses, the monophyly of Elachipterini is supported by multiple characters . However, resolution within the tribe is less clear because of widespread homoplasy. Elachiptera and Disciphus are paraphyletic because of the current recognition of some small autapomorphic genera (Cyrtomomyia, Goniaspis) and some undescribed species with intermediate combinations of character states. In contrast, all species of the large genus Melanochaeta that have been analysed to date appear to be monophyletic. As a result of this analysis several changes in generic limits are proposed to make the classification of the Elachipterini reflect the evolutionary history of the included species.