Mitt. Dtsch. Ges. allG. anGew. ent. 18 halle (saale) 2012 111 A preliminary molecular cladistic analysis of the dipteran family Sciaridae (Diptera: Sciaroidea) Julia Seeber 1 , Kai Heller 2 , Wolfgang Arthofer 1 & Alexander Rief 1 Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck Abstract: Die Trauermücken (Insecta, Diptera, Sciaroidea: Sciaridae) sind eine weltweit verbreitete Familie mit ca. 1700 beschriebenen Arten. Da es nur wenige, morphologisch abgrenzende Merkmale gibt, ist die Klassiizierung schwierig und uneinheitlich. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde zum ersten Mal eine Klassiizierung anhand eines molekularen Gens, der cytochrome c oxidase subunit one (CO I), vorgenommen. Key Words: Diptera, Sciaroidea, Sciaridae, Europe, Austria, Denmark, Germany, molecular phylogeny, CO I 1 Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria, E-Mail: Julia.Seeber@uibk.ac.at 2 Arthur-Zabel-Weg 25, 24226 Heikendorf, Germany, kaiheller@gmx.de Introduction Sciaridae (Diptera: Sciaroidea) are a dipteran family distributed worldwide and contain about 1700 named extant species. Until now, their classiication in genera has been conducted solely based on morphological characteristics (in earlier times only wing venation, nowadays mainly genitalic characters). Sciaridae are extremely uniform and the few distinguishing characters used for generic classiication appear to be very variable throughout the family. enDerlein (1911) and Frey (1942) were the irst ones who arranged the genera of Sciaridae with respect to their supposed relationships. Two further attempts to igure out the generic phylogeny of Sciaridae have been conducted recently. Menzel & MohriG (2000) presented a cladogram based upon manual character evaluation, whereas VilkaMaa & hippa (2004) used a computer-aided parsimony analysis for the generic consensus tree. Both cladograms differ considerably from each other and no common agreement has been found so far concerning the intergeneric classiication of Sciaridae. Thus it was interesting to evaluate the relationship of selected species on the basis of DNA similarity. The application of molecular tools to assess phylogenetic relationships within families or clades has been adopted for a wide range of taxa, including various dipteran families (e.g. Drosophilidae, o’GraDy & al. 2011; Calyptratae, kutty & al. 2010). For the Sciaridae, no attempt to conirm or revise the existing classiication via molecular analyses has been made until now. To get a irst insight into the molecular cladistics of this widespread dipteran family we analysed DNA sequences of a mitochondrial gene (cytochrome c oxidase subunit one). Material and methods Taxon sampling A total of 93 specimens belonging to 35 species and 10 genera were used in this study. Alpine species from “Hoher Burgstall” (Central Alps, Austria) were sampled via emergence traps throughout one growing season, the other species were hand-sampled in May 2010 in Northern Germany and Southern Denmark and in July/August 2010 in Carinthia (Austria). To avoid DNA degradation, salt water was used as primary collection luid in the emergence traps. All specimens were stored in 70% EtOH at room temperature.