| Polyneoptera is an assemblage of 11 insect orders comprising the "orthopteroid" insects. It includes familiar insects such as grasshoppers, roaches, termites, earwigs and preying mantises, as well as the more obscure web-spinners, angel insects and ice crawlers. We present a phylogenetic analysis of the polyneopteran orders based on 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Histone 3, and a coded morphology matrix for an extensive sampling of taxa. We investigate the use of congruence between separate datasets as an a priori measure of alignment quality. Our results support the paraphyly of Polyneoptera, the monophyly of Dictyoptera, sister taxon relationships between Embiidina + Phasmatodea and Dermaptera + Zoraptera, and a relatively basal placement of Plecoptera. The analyses also support a sister taxon relationship between the newly described Mantophasmatodea and Grylloblattodea, a small order of cryophilic insects confined to the northwestern Americas and northeastern Asia. This placement coupled with the morphological disparity of the two groups validates the creation of a new order for Mantophasmatodea. Our results also suggest that Direct Optimization (formerly Optimization Alignment) produces alignments that are more predictable across the parameter landscape than alignment via CLUSTAL X, as measured by congruence among independent data partitions.;Dense taxon sampling and phylogenetic analysis of six molecular markers (12S, 16S, 18S, 28S, COII, and H3) and morphological data for the order Plecoptera demonstrates that the subordinal groupings Antarctoperlaria and Systellognatha are monophyletic, however Euholognatha is strongly supported as paraphyletic and composes the first several basal lineages within Plecoptera. Nemouridae is sister taxon to the remainder of Plecoptera and Notonemouridae is strongly supported as a monophyletic group. Within the Systellognatha Scopuridae is the basal lineage, followed by Peltoperlidae then Pteronarcyidae, and Perloidea is a strongly supported monophyletic group with Chloroperlidae as sister taxon to Perlidae + Perlodidae. Both drumming and skimming are symplesiomorphic behaviors for Plecoptera. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
