Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA; Department of Biology, Eastern Connecticut State University, 83 Windham Street, Willimantic, CT 06266, USA.
Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Avenida Universidad 2001, Apartado Postal 510-3, Cuernavaca, Morelos 62210, Mexico; Laboratorio de Aracnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Comparada, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.P. 04510 Mexico City, Mexico.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2019 Jun;135:22-30. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2019.02.021. Epub 2019 Mar 1.
The Neartic family Vaejovidae (Scorpiones: Chactoidea) has long been treated as a diverse and systematically cohesive group of scorpions, but its monophyly and relationship to other scorpion families have historically been questioned. Morphological data have supported its monophyly and a variety of phylogenetic placements within the superfamily Chactoidea. Recent phylogenomic analyses have instead recovered vaejovids as polyphyletic (albeit with minimal taxonomic sampling) and Chactoidea as paraphyletic. Here, we reexamined the monophyly and phylogenetic placement of the family Vaejovidae, sampling 17 new vaejovid libraries using high throughput transcriptomic sequencing. Our phylogenomic analyses revealed a previous misplacement of Smeringurus mesaensis. Regardless, we recovered Vaejovidae as diphyletic due to the placement of the enigmatic genus Uroctonus. The remaining vaejovids formed a clade that was strongly supported as the sister group of the superfamily Scorpionoidea, a placement insensitive to matrix completeness or concatenation vs. species tree approaches to inferring the tree topology. Chactoidea was invariably recovered as a paraphyletic group due to the nested placement of Scorpionoidea. As first steps to resolving the paraphyly of Chactoidea, we take the following systematic actions: (1) we establish the superfamily Superstitionoidea (new superfamily) to accommodate Superstitioniidae; (2) we restore Vaejovoidea (status revalidated) as a valid superfamily that excludes Uroctonus; and (3) we treat the families Caraboctonidae, Troglotayosicidae, and the subfamily Uroctoninae as incertae sedis with respect to superfamilial placement. Our systematic actions thus establish the monophyly of the presently redefined Chactoidea and Vaejovoidea.
北极家族 Vaejovidae（蝎子：Chactoidea）长期以来一直被视为一个多样化且系统上具有凝聚力的蝎子群体，但它的单系性及其与其他蝎子科的关系在历史上一直受到质疑。形态数据支持了它的单系性以及在超家族 Chactoidea 中的各种系统发育位置。最近的系统基因组分析结果相反，认为 vaejovids 是多系的（尽管分类学采样很少），而 Chactoidea 是并系的。在这里，我们重新检查了家族 Vaejovidae 的单系性和系统发育位置，使用高通量转录组测序对 17 个新的 vaejovid 文库进行了采样。我们的系统基因组分析揭示了以前对 Smeringurus mesaensis 的错误定位。尽管如此，由于神秘属 Uroctonus 的位置，我们发现 Vaejovidae 是二系的。其余的 vaejovids 形成了一个分支，该分支强烈支持为超家族 Scorpionoidea 的姐妹群，这种位置不受矩阵完整性或串联与种系树方法推断树拓扑结构的影响。由于 Scorpionoidea 的嵌套位置，Chactoidea 始终被恢复为并系群。作为解决 Chactoidea 并系性的第一步，我们采取以下系统行动：（1）我们建立了超家族 Superstitionoidea（新超家族）以容纳 Superstitioniidae；（2）我们恢复了 Vaejovoidea（地位恢复）作为一个有效的超家族，不包括 Uroctonus；（3）我们将 Caraboctonidae、Troglotayosicidae 家族和 Uroctoninae 亚科视为超家族位置的不确定分类单元。因此，我们的系统行动确立了目前重新定义的 Chactoidea 和 Vaejovoidea 的单系性。
