FromArgetoZenarge: adult morphology and phylogenetics of argid sawflies (Hymenoptera: Argidae)

Abstract

The Argidae is the second most diverse family of the ‘Symphyta’ with more than 900 described species. Here we present the first comprehensive phylogenetic study for the family. We compare the adult skeleton anatomy of representatives of 57 described argid genera from different biogeographic regions. We score 223 characters for 117 terminal taxa, and apply maximum parsimony inference to reconstruct the phylogeny, using equal weights and implied weights analyses. The Argidae sensu stricto, i.e. all Argidae except Zenarge, are consistently retrieved as monophyletic. The position of Zenarge changes according to the implied weighting parameters: ((Zenarge+Pergidae)+Argidae) at low (1–3) k-values, (Zenarge+(Pergidae+Argidae)) at high (4–30) k-values. We describe in detail the skeletal anatomy of Zenarge turneri and propose to raise it to family status: Zenargidae stat. revis. We consider the ridge on the teloparameres (=harpes) of the male genitalia to be the main autapomorphy of adults of the Argidae sensu stricto. We recover two main clades within the family and suggest recognizing these as the subfamilies Arginae and Sterictiphorinae. We trace the evolution of characters on the preferred implied weights tree. The genera Arge, Didymia, Pampsilota, Ptenos and Sphacophilus were paraphyletic.

Sawflies out of Gondwana: phylogenetics and biogeography of Argidae (Hymenoptera)

“…Other classification schemes for Argidae recognizing more subfamilies and tribes have been proposed (e.g., Smith, 1992;Taeger et al, 2010). Malagón-Aldana et al (2021a) were unable to corroborate these, although some previously suggested tribes (e.g., Trichorhachini, Atomacerini, Dielocerini and Sterictiphorini) were retrieved as monophyletic. Revising the tribal classification of Argidae s.s. will require a denser taxon sampling than was obtained in Malagón-Aldana et al (2021a).…”

“…An additional total evidence approach using Bayesian tree inference was performed combining the data matrix of 223 adult anatomical characters (117 taxa) (Malagón-Aldana et al, 2021a) and 85 larval characters (48 taxa) (Malagón-Aldana et al, 2021b) with the molecular dataset. For the adult morphological character matrix, seven characters (41, 45, 87, 89, 161, 162 and 175) were treated as ordered in accordance with Malagón-Aldana et al (2021a), and three additional characters (5,27,39) based on the result patterns of the larval morphology dataset (Malagón-Aldana et al, 2021b). The molecular and morphological datasets were assembled using mesquite 3.6 (Maddison & Maddison, 2019).…”

“…Until recently, no comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis was available for Argidae and no biogeographical scenario in a cladistic framework has been proposed. Malagón-Aldana et al (2021a, 2021b analysed comprehensive data sets of Argidae based on adult (all 56 extant genera represented) and larval morphology (21 genera included). Their main finding was that the monotypic Australian genus Zenarge (Fig.…”

“…1K) that was previously placed in Argidae did not group with the remainder of the family (Argidae s.s.), but instead was placed as either sister to Pergidae, or most frequently sister to (Argidae s.s. + Pergidae); regardless of its position, Zenarge was always in a monophylum with Argidae s.s. and Pergidae (the ZAP clade). Consequently, Malagón-Aldana et al (2021a) placed Zenarge in a separate family, the Zenargidae. This contrasts with the results of the few previous molecular analyses of 'Symphyta' that included Zenarge in their taxon sample (Malm & Nyman, 2015), where the genus was retrieved as sister to Argidae s.s.; comparatively few exemplars of Argidae were included in these analyses.…”

“…This contrasts with the results of the few previous molecular analyses of 'Symphyta' that included Zenarge in their taxon sample (Malm & Nyman, 2015), where the genus was retrieved as sister to Argidae s.s.; comparatively few exemplars of Argidae were included in these analyses. Malagón-Aldana et al (2021a, 2021b retrieved two major clades within Argidae s.s., corresponding to the subfamilies Arginae (Fig. 1A-J) and Sterictiphorinae (Fig.…”