Pires Machado, Renato Jose (2017-04). Myrmeleontidae (Neuroptera): Molecular Phylogeny and Taxonomic Review of the Subtribe Periclystina (Dendroleontini). Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
The family Myrmeleontidae, or antlions, is considered today as the largest family of the order Neuroptera. This cosmopolitan group comprises more than 1600 valid species and nearly 200 genera. The taxonomy of the family is still very confusing, but the most accepted Myrmeleontidae classification divides the group into three subfamilies, 14 tribes and 11 subtribes. In this dissertation, the first phylogenomic analysis for the antlions is presented, and the subtribe Periclystina is taxonomically revised based on morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses. The phylogenomic analysis of the antlions is presented, based on 325 genes captured using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment. 216 species of Myrmeleontiformia were tested under maximum likelihood. Myrmeleontidae was recovered paraphyletic without Ascalaphidae. The two largest subfamilies of Myrmeleontidae (Myrmeleontinae and Palparinae) and Ascalaphidae (Ascalaphinae and Haplogleniinae) were also recovered paraphyletic. All antlion tribes were recovered monophyletic (except Brachynemurini), but almost all subtribes were recovered paraphyletic. The results presented here are incongruent to the traditional Myrmeleontidae classification. In this sense, it is proposed here a new classification for the antlions, which synonymizes Ascalaphidae under Myrmeleontidae and divides the family into four subfamilies and 18 tribes. The new classification reflects the results presented here, and parts that need further studies are also discussed. The subtribe Periclystina is fully revised. Prior to this work, this Australian group comprised 63 species placed in ten genera. After the review, six species names are considered as synonyms and 16 new species are proposed, summing 73 species. All 73 species were tested in a parsimony analysis based on 62 morphological characters, and 36 species were also included in a maximum likelihood analysis based on 534 genes. The results from both analyses are very congruent and both recovered Periclystina and the two largest genera, Austrogymnocnemia and Glenoleon, paraphyletics. Ten of the 73 species were recovered in a cluster with Acanthoplectron, and were transferred to the tribe Acanthoplectrini. The remaining 63 species formed a monophyletic clade composed by 14 genera (nine new genera); it is called here as the "Periclystus genus group" and is placed in the tribe Dendroleontini.
