Phylogenetic position of the house dust mite subfamily Guatemalichinae (Acariformes: Pyroglyphidae) based on integrated molecular and morphological analyses and different measures of support

Abstract

Based on multilocus phylogenetic analyses (18S, 28S, EF1‐α, SRP54, HSP70, CO1, 10 860 nt aligned), we show that the house dust mite subfamily Guatemalichinae is nested within non‐onychalgine pyroglyphid mites and forms the sister group to the genus Sturnophagoides (bootstrap support 100, posterior probability 1.0). Because high bootstrap support values may be misleading in the presence of incongruence, we evaluate robustness of the Guatemalichinae+Sturnophagoides clade using: (1) internode certainty indices to estimate the frequency of conflicting bipartitions in maximum‐likelihood bootstrap trees, (ii) consensus networks to investigate conflict among different loci; and (iii) statistical hypothesis testing based on information theory, both multi‐scale and regular bootstrap. Results suggest that this grouping is very well supported given the data. The molecular analyses were integrated with detailed morphological study using scanning electron and light microscopy. We suggest that the subfamilial status of Guatemalichinae should be reconsidered, and this lineage should be placed within the subfamily Dermatophagoidinae. The latter subfamily is currently accepted in the literature as a monophyletic group but was here inferred as paraphyletic and was not supported by any morphological synapomorphy. The paraphyly involved the most species‐rich and medically important genus, Dermatophagoides. Our findings suggest the need for a comprehensive revision of the higher‐level relationships of pyroglyphid house dust mites using both DNA sequences and morphology coupled with a broad taxonomic sampling.

Proteome and allergenome of the European house dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus

“…farinae are currently classified within the same genus. Furthermore, the phylogeny confirms the paraphyly of the Dermatophagoides genus as previously reported [41].…”

Cox1 barcoding versus multilocus species delimitation: validation of two mite species with contrasting effective population sizes

“…Live mites ( Caparinia from Erinaceus europaeus , ZISP AVB 17-0305-001 and Atelerix albiventris , ZISP AVB 14-0505-004, see Additional file 1: Text S1 for more detail) were removed individually using fine and sharp forceps, preserved in 96% ethanol for scanning electron microscopy and molecular analysis or mounted in Hoyer’s medium [53]. House dust mite datasets (Additional file 2: Table S1) were described previously [54, 55]. For the purpose of this work we consider that census population size and effective population size are highly correlated.…”