Phylogenetics and evolution of tephritid fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae)

The Tephritidae (Diptera) includes some of the most biologically interesting and agriculturally important species of flies. Although members of this family are commonly called fruit flies, several species develop in flowers of Asteraceae and others are associated with flowers of various plant families or their larvae are miners, borers or gallmakers of various plant tissues and organs. The Tephritidae includes about 5000 described species, making it one of the largest families within Diptera. Despite years of work by many dipterists, several outstanding systematics issues still remain. Here I report on four separate but related studies of phylogenetics and evolution of tephritids using DNA sequences.; Phylogenetic relationships among 44 tephritids were inferred from 950 base pairs from the 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA mitochondrial genes. The results suggest that Tephritinae and Dacini are monophyletic. In addition, an analysis of 27 species of Trypetinae recovered the tribes Carpomyini and Trypetini and the subtribes Trypetina and Acidoxanthina as monophyletic. A combined phylogenetic analysis of 1391 base pairs from the 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA, and cytochrome oxidase II + tRNA-Lys + tRNA-Asp mitochondrial genes was conducted to rigorously test the monophyly of Dacini. Parsimony analysis recovered the following relationships with strong quantitative support: (1) the tribe Dacini is monophyletic, and (2) Dacini subtribes and genera are monophyletic.; Phylogenetic relationships among 42 Bactrocera species were inferred from 1820 base pairs of portions of the 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA, NADH 1 dehydrogenase, and cytochome oxidase II + tRNA-Lys + tRNA-Asp mitochondrial genes and 55 morphological characters. Parsimony analysis suggested: (1)  Bactrocera was monophyletic, (2) B. ( Zeugodacus) was polyphyletic, (3) B. ( Bactrocera) was monophyletic, and (4) members of the B. (B.) dorsalis complex were not monophyletic. In addition, the phylogenetic tree provided insight into morphological character evolution, biogeography, and the evolution of male-lure response.; A phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences from portions of the mitochondrial NADH1 dehydrogenase (ND1) and cytochome oxidase II + tRNA-Lys + tRNA-Asp (CO2KD) genes indicated that two monophyletic lineages exist among Eurosta solidaginis from North Dakota that correlate with host plant association. The two lineages are thus elevated to specific status: E. solidaginis (Fitch) on Solidago gigantea and E. fascipennis (Curran) on S. altissima.