Giant sawflies and their kin: morphological phylogeny of Cimbicidae (Hymenoptera)

Abstract

The Cimbicidae is a small family including the largest extant true sawflies (Tenthredinoidea). It comprises four subfamilies, three of which have a northern hemisphere distribution (Abiinae, Cimbicinae -Holarctic/Oriental; Corynidinae -Palaearctic), whereas the Pachylostictinae are restricted to South America. No previous attempts have been made to evaluate the subfamily classification in a cladistic context. In the present paper, 144 morphological characters from the adult anatomy for a total of 95 species of Cimbicidae and 26 outgroup taxa are scored. All subfamilies and all genera of Cimbicidae except one are represented; all families of Tenthredinoidea are represented in the outgroup. Equal weights (EW) and implied weights (IW) analyses are conducted in tnt. The results largely corroborate the existing subfamily classification, except for Pachylostictinae which are paraphyletic in IW analyses with low K-values. Abiinae + Cimbicinae is always retrieved and strongly supported; Corynidinae + Pachylostictinae is retrieved in most analyses but weakly supported. Revised diagnoses of the subfamilies are provided. Several genera are retrieved as monophyletic, notable exceptions being Praia and Trichiosoma, which are polyphyletic. The evolution of large body size in Cimbicidae is briefly discussed; possible related phenomena are intrasexual competition and mimicry, i.e. resemblance to large apids or vespids.

Peer Review #2 of "Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Labriocimbex sinicus, a new genus and new species of Cimbicidae (Hymenoptera) from China (v0.2)"

“…Cimbicidae was inferred as the sister to Argidae + Pergidae proposed by morphological analyses (Wei and Nie, 1997;Vilhelmsen, 2001;2015;. The disaccord with several recent studies may be caused by the limited dataset of Cimbicidae, by molecular or combined analyses, which have placed Cimbicidae as sister to Diprionidae (Schulmeister, 2003;Schmidt and Walter, 2014;Isaka and Sato, 2015;Malm and Nyman, 2015) or a clade including Diprionidae form a monophylum as sister to the remaining tenthredinoids (Heraty et al, 2011;Ronquist et al, 2012;Klopfstein et al, 2013).The monophyly of Cimbicidae has never been contested and not comprehensively tested until Vilhelmsen (2019). Adult Cimbicidae are primarily characterized by their clubbed antennae, one or more of the apical antennomeres being expanded.…”

“…Adult Cimbicidae are primarily characterized by their clubbed antennae, one or more of the apical antennomeres being expanded. They vary in size from small (6 mm) to very large insects (30 mm), making them the largest true sawflies known (Vilhelmsen, 2019). Some of the species are economically important pests causing serious defoliation of woody plants such as elm (Ulmus, Ulmaceae), willow (Salix, Salicaceae), honeysuckle (Lonicera, Caprifoliaceae) and cherry (Prunus, Rosaceae) (Gauld and Bolton 1988).…”

“…The Cimbicinae is the most diverse subfamily, it was divided into Cimbicini and Trichiosomini (Abe and Smith, 1991). The monophyly of Cimbicini was not supported by a following cladistic analyses with sufficient representation of cimbicid taxa of China (Deng, 2000) and a cladistic analyses with most representatives of cimbicid taxa of world (Vilhelmsen, 2019). The monophyly of Trichiosomini was supported by a cladistic analyses with sufficient representation of cimbicid taxa of China (Deng, 2000).…”

“…The monophyly of Trichiosomini was supported by a cladistic analyses with sufficient representation of cimbicid taxa of China (Deng, 2000). The clade Abiinae + Cimbicinae received strong support in Vilhelmsen (2019). Vilhelmsen (2019) placed Labriocimbex into Cimbicinae but the name is a nomina nudum.…”

“…The clade Abiinae + Cimbicinae received strong support in Vilhelmsen (2019). Vilhelmsen (2019) placed Labriocimbex into Cimbicinae but the name is a nomina nudum. So far, mitochondrial genome of two species in the family, Trichiosoma anthracinum (KT921411) and Corynis lateralis (KY063728) have been reported (Song et al 2016;Doğan and Korkmaz, 2017).…”