Insights into the systematics of Alluaudinella and allied Aethiopomyia and Ochromusca (Muscidae, Diptera)

Abstract

The muscid genera Alluaudinella Giglio‐Tos, 1895, Aethiopomyia Malloch, 1921 and Ochromusca Malloch, 1927 form a monophyletic group supported by immature and adult morphology and a highly specialised snail‐feeding strategy of immature stages. In contrast to the undoubted monophyly of the Alluaudinella‐Aethiopomyia‐Ochromusca clade, previous studies have provided contradictory hypotheses of the subfamiliar position within the Muscidae, and these three genera have been placed in the subfamily Muscinae, Dichaetomyiinae, Phaoniinae and Reinwardtiinae. The systematic position of Alluaudinella, as a representative of Alluaudinella, Aethiopomyia and Ochromusca group, is revised by means of larval morphology, biology and molecular data. Light microscopy (LM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used to study the egg and all larval instars of Alluaudinella flavicornis (Macquart, 1855) and a multilocus Sanger sequencing (mS‐seq) approach to examine position within Muscidae. Results are inconsistent with the traditional, morphology‐based concept of the Alluaudinella‐Aethiopomyia‐Ochromusca clade as closely related to Dichaetomyia Malloch, 1921, and the phylogenetic analysis revealed no support for inclusion within subfamily Phaoniinae. Larval morphology in Alluaudinella differs significantly from that of Dichaetomyia (and other Phaoniinae), but resembles that of genera nested in Reinwardtiinae. Based on molecular data and larval morphology a transfer of Alluaudinella, Aethiopomyia and Ochromusca to the subfamily Reinwardtiinae is proposed.