Abai, MR

6th International Congress of DipterologyClassification of Japanese robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae)based on molecular evidenceUtsuki, N. (1)(1) Laboratory of Systematic Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo MetropolitanUniversity, Minamioosawa 1-1, Hachiouji-shi Tokyo 192-0397, JapanThe family Asilidae is one of the remarkably large and abundant familiesof the Diptera, and distributed through out all biogeographic regions of theworld. More than 500 genera and some 7,000 species are known from theworld (Geller-Grimm, 2005), and 34 genera and 72 species have beenrecorded from Japan (Hirashima, 1989). The family Asilidae is ataxonomically unified group. However, there are various opinions on thehigher classification of Asilidae at the subfamily or tribe level (Lavigne,2000). Various authors have been carried out a comparative morphologywork (Macquart, 1838; Osten-Sacken, 1884; Hull, 1962; Papavero, 1973;Wood, 1981; Lehr, 1969, 1996) and the classification of Asilidae has beenstabled. However, those classifications by the various authors have beenbased on intuition rather than a quantitative phylogenetic analysis.Recently Bybee et al. (2004) presented the first analysis of phylogeneticrelationship among the subfamily of Asilidae, based on molecular data sets.It indicated an inconsistency between the former systematic based oncomparative morphology and systematic based on molecular phylogeny.In this study, phylogenetic analysis among the Asilidae, based on threegenes: 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA, and 28S rDNA was carried out. Thirtyingroup taxa from Japan representing 9 of the 10 described subfamilieswere used. From the results of the phylogenetic studies, classification ofJapanese Asilidae species based on molecular phylogeny is provided.Key Words: Asilidae, molecular phylogeny, classification∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗286