Phylogenetic species and domesticity of Lutzomyia whitmani at the southeast boundary of Amazonian Brazil

• Published in: Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1998-03, Vol.92 (2), p.159-160
• Main Authors: READY, P. D, DE SOUZA, A. A, MACARIO REBELO, J. M, DAY, J. C, SILVEIRA, F. T, CAMPBELL-LENDRUM, D, DAVIES, C. R, COSTA, J. M. L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Brazil; Demography; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Insect Vectors; Lutzomyia whitmani; Medically important nuisances and vectors, pests of stored products and materials: population survey and control; Phylogeny; Psychodidae; Psychodidae - genetics; Topography, Medical; Tropical medicine; Vectors. Intermediate hosts
• ISSN: 0035-9203; 1878-3503
• DOI: 10.1016/S0035-9203(98)90726-X

Algorithms used to group organisms into clades -- lineages characterized by shared derived characters -- have made a large impact on evolutionary biology, especially following the introduction of molecular methods of characterization, but the treatment of irreducible clades as `phylogenetic species' can misinform non-systematists accustomed to the `biological species' concept, which stresses reproductive isolation. The significance of according species status to phylogenetic lineages with geographically exclusive (allopatric) or abutting (parapatric) ranges can be unclear, because lack of resources usually precludes assessing gene flow across putative hybrid zones where the sibling species might meet. This limitation of the phylogenetic species concept is important when considering disease transmission by blood-sucking flies, because not all inherited traits of vectorial importance need co-evolve with the nuclear ribosomal genes or the maternally-inherited mitochondrial genes (mtDNA) commonly used to infer relationships.