Abstract

Proctacanthus (Macquart 1838), an elegant genus of robber flies within the Asilidae family, plays a significant ecological and economic role. However, the lack of a comprehensive taxonomic treatment hinders their identification and thus their use in evolutionary and behavioral research. This study focuses on the taxonomic revision of the Proctacanthus, identifying the features used in recognizing the philadelphicus Species Group and the rufiventris Species Group. By providing systematic and biological data, describing new species, and offering a key for identification, this research contributes to understanding the ecological significance and geographic distribution and history of Proctacanthus. This work will enhance future ecological applications of these species, and all robber flies in general. While robber flies' inter-familial phylogenetic relationships have been studied, molecular investigations at the genus level, and below, have been limited. This thesis also presents the first ever complete phylogenetic analysis of Proctacanthus, focusing on those species north of Mexico. We sequenced genomes of 23 specimens and conducted genome size estimation, sequence trimming, and assembly on them. We constructed a phylogenetic tree using concatenated alignments and a total gene tree with ASTRAL. BUSCO scores were varied with an average of 79% of the 3285 BUSCO genes in the Diptera data set being recovered. In all trees, the rufiventris group split entirely from the philadelphicus group. In most trees recovered, the philadelphicus Species Group split into the same two monophyletic groups, with P. occidentalis and P. coquillettii as outgroups, one comprising of P. duryi, P. heros, P. nigriventris, P. hooki, P. longus, P. brevipennis, P. gracilis, and P. rodecki; the other containing P. arenophilus, P. philadelphicus , P. milbertii, P. nearno, P. nearno and P. micans. Our findings shed light on the phylogenetic relationships within the Proctacanthus genus and contribute to the broader understanding of robber fly evolution.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Life Sciences; Biology

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2023-08-16

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13344

Keywords

systematics, phylogenetics, taxonomy, robber fly evolution

Language

english

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