Abai, MR

6th International Congress of DipterologyA cladistic study of the Limnophilinae (Limoniidae) usingadult male characters: some light shed on the evolution ofTipulomorphaRibeiro, G.C. (1, 2)(1) Pós-Graduação em Entomologia. FFCLRP-USP. Av. Bandeirantes 3900. 14040-901.Ribeirão Preto, SP. Brazil. gribeiro@usp.br(2) FAPESP Grant # 02/13613-6The Tipulomorpha, including Cylindrotomidae, Pediciidae, Tipulidae,Limoniidae, and maybe Trichoceridae, is one of the largest groups ofLower Diptera. The phylogenetic relationships among Tipulomorphasubgroups at different levels remains poorly understood. Although themonophyly of Pediciidae, Cylindrotomidae and Tipulidae seems moredefensible based on existing morphological evidences, the same is not truefor the Limoniidae and many of its subgroups. Among the subfamilies ofLimoniidae, the Limnophilinae is perhaps the most inclined to be the big“taxonomic trash can” in the Tipulomorpha. Synapomorphic features arelacking and the group can be paraphyletic not only with respect to the othersubfamilies of Limoniidae, but also to some of the other Tipulomorphafamilies as well. A cladistic study was conducted focused on theinterrelationships among extant Limnophilinae genera and subgenera, butwith a taxonomic sample of other Tipulomorpha subgroups that in someextension allowed a study of its phylogeny at higher levels. The analysiswas based on 80 characters from the adult male morphology, scored from91 species of Limoniidae (77 species in 53 genera/subgenera), Pediciidae(2 species, 2 genera), Tipulidae (4 species, 4 genera), Cylindrotomidae (4species, 4 genera), Trichoceridae (2 species, 2 genera), Tanyderidae (1species), and Mecoptera (1 species). In general, the results reinforce theparaphyly of Limonophilinae with respect to the other subfamilies ofLimoniidae. Different solutions for the position of Pediciidae,Cylindrotomidae, Tipulidae and subgroups of Limoniidae were obtaineddepending on different analytical procedures and a posteriori weightingmethods. Although a high level of homoplasy was encountered, the dataset based on the adult male morphology has shown enough phylogenetic205