Wētā Aotearoa-Polyphyly of the New Zealand Anostostomatidae (Insecta: Orthoptera).

The Anostostomatidae of Aotearoa New Zealand are well-characterized at the genus and species level, but the higher-level systematics of the family as a whole remain poorly resolved. We tested the hypothesis that the New Zealand anaostostomatid fauna consists of a single monophyletic group consistent with a single common ancestor. For phylogenetic analysis, we sampled the genera in Aotearoa New Zealand as well as representatives of the family from Australia and New Caledonia. Maximum likelihood analyses including topological comparison statistics with a DNA alignment of thirteen mitochondrial and four nuclear protein coding genes rejected the monophyly of lineages in New Zealand. We found phylogenetic support for four separate New Zealand lineages; three with their closest relatives in Australia and one in New Caledonia. The New Zealand genus is paraphyletic and the establishment of a morphologically distinct genus is justified. We determined that six of the valid species previously placed in form a distinct clade that we designated here as gen. nov. The putative that we sampled from Australia was sister to neither of the New Zealand lineages.