Raiding the taxonomic toolbox: using integrative taxonomy to unravel Batesian mimicry complexes in the Taeniapterini (Diptera: Micropezidae)

Often conspicuous in Neotropical lowland rainforests displaying on broad leaves, the Taeniapterini are convincing Batesian mimics of ants and ichneumonid wasps, creating interesting taxonomic problems. With inconsistent variation in external morphology, a poverty of male genitalic characters, and a lack of published distributional or temporal hypotheses, some generic boundaries have been unclear. To understand some of the homoplasy found in the morphological characters, a total evidence tree was produced using 2 mtDNA genes (12S and COI) and 2 nuDNA genes (wingless and CAD), onto which select morphological synapomorphies were mapped. It was found that the Taeniapterini is paraphyletic with the Grallipezini nested within it, and the genus Taeniaptera (Macquart) was found to be a paraphyletic assemblage of 3 distinct species groups, which will be treated in future work.