Towards a phylogeny of the flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae): morphology and phylogenetic implications of the acrophallus in the subfamily Sarcophaginae

• Published in: Zoological journal of the Linnean Society 2010-04, Vol.158 (4), p.740-778
• Main Authors: GIROUX, MARJOLAINE, PAPE, THOMAS, WHEELER, TERRY A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blaesoxipha; cladistics; classification; Genitalia; male genitalia; scanning electron microscopy; systematics
• ISSN: 0024-4082; 1096-3642
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00561.x

The morphology of the acrophallus, the distal portion of the male phallus carrying the phallotreme, was studied in 72 exemplar species representing 56 genera and subgenera of the flesh fly subfamily Sarcophaginae. For 42 of those species, scanning electron microscopy was used to clarify the phallic morphology. Terms used to describe the male genitalia were updated based on new interpretations of homology. Male genitalic characters, combined with other morphological characters of adult males and females and of larvae, were used to construct a phylogeny. The monophyly of the subfamily was supported, and some generic‐level sister‐group relationships proposed in the literature, but without previous cladistic analyses, were also supported. The genus Blaesoxipha Loew, as currently recognized, was not monophyletic in our analysis. The genus Helicobia Coquillett is synonymized with Sarcophaga Meigen syn. nov. and treated as a subgenus of the latter. The Sarcophaga subgenera Neobellieria Blanchard and Mehria Enderlein were not monophyletic. Many of the clades in the analysis were supported primarily or exclusively by male genitalic character states, highlighting the importance of the male genitalia as a source of morphological characters for sarcophagine phylogeny. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 158, 740–778.