Is there a role for morphology in uropodine systematics?
2026 - Volume: 66 Issue: Suppl pages: 79
https://doi.org/10.24349/t2b0-055s
ICA 2026 - XVII International Congress of Acarology, 20-24 July 2026, Montpellier
Keywords
Systematics
Morphology
Genomics
Parasitiformes
Uropodina
Abstract
Uropodina form a very diverse lineage with global distribution. Unfortunately, there is still little agreement on classification within the lineage, with different schools of thought emphasizing different (morphology based) character systems. One solution is to discard morphology and develop phylogenies and classifications based entirely on molecular data, but this may be excessive. In the current project, morphology and molecular data are integrated in a total evidence analysis. The main questions are to what degree results from analyses using morphology only are consistent with the combined analyses, and whether the addition of morphology to the combined analyses provides added value (e.g. better or worse resolution, better or worse support.) Two sets of morphology-based character matrices were constructed, one based on vouchers from DNA extractions (199 taxa), and another, taxonomically broader one, based on available literature data (215 taxa). Taxa were coded for all morphological characters (170) that could be coded in a consistent way. This includes traditional characters and some newly developed characters based on micro-CT scans. This data set was combined with DNA sequence data for nuclear rDNA and mitogenomes. This shows that morphology only are consistent with combined analyses. Given this, we expect that the addition of morphology may provide added support for some of the newly recognized lineages in Uropodina.
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