J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073, Göttingen, Germany.
Tbilisi State University, 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Exp Appl Acarol. 2024 Dec;93(4):787-802. doi: 10.1007/s10493-024-00960-1. Epub 2024 Sep 8.
A reliable phylogeny is crucial for understanding the evolution and radiation of animal taxa. Phylogenies based on morphological data may be misleading due to frequent convergent evolution of traits-a problem from which molecular phylogenies suffer less. This may be particularly relevant in oribatid mites, an ancient soil animal taxon with more than 11,000 species, where the classification of species into high-ranking taxa such as superfamilies is equivocal. Here, we present a molecular phylogeny of 317 oribatid, 4 astigmatid and 17 endeostigmatid mite species/taxa based on 18S rDNA sequences. We aimed at testing the validity of the 41 superfamilies of oribatid mites recognized by Norton and Behan-Pelletier (in Krantz and Walter, A manual of Acarology, 3rd ed., Texas Technical University Press, Lubbock, 2009). The results indicate that 17 of the 41 oribatid mite superfamilies are monophyletic but that 18 superfamilies are paraphyletic or polyphyletic (5 superfamilies were only included with one species and Microzetoidea were not included). Our findings point to the importance of convergent evolution in polyphyletic oribatid mite taxa. Convergent evolution and the old age of mites likely resulted in a mosaic-like distribution of morphological characters impeding phylogenetic reconstructions based on morphology, calling for molecular approaches to improve oribatid mite systematics.
可靠的系统发育对于理解动物类群的进化和辐射至关重要。基于形态数据的系统发育可能会产生误导，因为特征的频繁趋同进化是一个问题，而分子系统发育受其影响较小。这在具有 11000 多种物种的古老土壤动物类群——甲螨中可能尤为相关，其中物种分类为高级分类群（如超科）存在争议。在这里，我们基于 18S rDNA 序列，呈现了 317 种甲螨、4 种真螨目和 17 种表变态目螨种/类群的分子系统发育。我们旨在测试诺顿和贝汉-佩莱捷（在 Krantz 和 Walter，《节肢动物手册》，第 3 版，德克萨斯技术大学出版社，拉伯克，2009 年）所认可的 41 种甲螨超科的有效性。结果表明，41 种甲螨超科中有 17 种是单系的，但有 18 种是并系或多系的（有 5 个超科只包括一个物种，而 Microzetoidea 未包括在内）。我们的发现表明，趋同进化在多系甲螨类群中很重要。趋同进化和螨类的古老历史可能导致形态特征呈镶嵌式分布，从而阻碍了基于形态的系统发育重建，这呼吁采用分子方法来改进甲螨系统学。
