Mitochondrial gene fragments suggest paraphyly of the genus Panorpa (Mecoptera, Panorpidae)

Life history studies of scorpionfly species have been used to test predicti ons of evolutionary theory, but comparative analysis has been hampered by a lacking phylogeny of scorpionflies. We present a molecular phylogeny of se lected panorpid scorpionflies inferred from mitochondrial 12S, 16S rRNA, an d COI gene fragments, using parsimony and maximum-likelihood methods. Maxim um-likelihood reconstructions depend on an explicit evolutionary substituti on model; therefore, we estimated fit of substitution models to our data an d used an optimal evolutionary substitution model in subsequent reconstruct ions. Both reconstruction methods converge on compatible trees with conside rable statistical support for a majority of nodes. We performed parametric tests of most important phylogenetic conclusions employing the fitted GTR %1 + Gamma substitution model. Parametric bootstrapping allowed rejection of alternative explanations of the data set, where classical tests, like th e KHY test, failed. Parametric bootstrapping confirmed that the association of Neopanorpa sp. with Asian Panorpa species is currently the superior exp lanation of the data set. Therefore, it is concluded that the genus Panorpa is most likely paraphyletic to the representative of the genus Neopanorpa. We conclude that the sequenced mitochondrial gene fragments appear to be w ell suited for future more comprehensive phylogenetic investigations of pan orpid scorpionflies. (C) 2000 Academic Press.