Pk. Flook et Chf. Rowell, THE PHYLOGENY OF THE CAELIFERA (INSECTA, ORTHOPTERA) AS DEDUCED FROM MTRRNA GENE-SEQUENCES, Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 8(1), 1997, pp. 89-103
Fragments of both mitochondrial ribosomal RNA genes of 32 caeliferan t
axa (representing six of the seven superfamilies) and six outgroup Ort
hopteroids were sequenced. The combined alignment length was 630 bp af
ter removal of all ambiguously aligned positions. Separation of the ba
sal taxa was problematic and analysis using the LogDet transformation
indicated that shared base composition biases were a confounding facto
r, The suborder Caelifera and all traditional caeliferan superfamilies
except the Pamphagoidea are retrieved as monophyletic groups, though
the Eumastacoidea lack significant bootstrap support. Of the tradition
al pamphagoid taxa, the Pamphagidae is embedded between classically ac
ridid subfamilies, whereas Pyrgomorphidae is placed close to the Pneum
oroidea. The morphological similarities of the Pyrgomorphidae and Pamp
hagidae may thus be homoplasic. A consensus tree based on five differe
nt methods of analysis indicated the following order: (Tridactyloidea,
Tetrigoidea (Eumastacidae, Proscopiidae (Pneumoridae, Pyrgomorphidae
(Acrididae + Pamphagidae)))). (C) 1997 Academic Press.