A recently-published phylogenetic tree, constructed using the neighbor-joining algorithm, summarized relationships among 37 species of Coleoptera (Insecta) indicated by a 400 base pair region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene. This study included sequences from four species of the family Coccinellidae. The relationships of the four coccinellids indicated by the published neighbor-joining tree are congruent with current hypotheses of their relationships based on adult, larval, and pupal morphology. However, re-analysis of the molecular sequences for these taxa using standard parsimony methods reveals a more complex situation in which the use of different outgroups and different tree-searching algorithms yields strikingly different topologies, many of which do not correspond to the pattern of relationships derived from morphological data. These sequences may simply be too variable and too highly convergent to accurately reflect the phylogenetic history of Coccinellidae.
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1 August 2001
MITOCHONDRIAL CYTOCHROME OXIDASE I DNA SEQUENCES AND THE PHYLOGENY OF COCCINELLIDAE (INSECTA: COLEOPTERA: CUCUJOIDEA)
Jonathan R. Mawdsley
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Journal of the New York Entomological Society
Vol. 109 • No. 2
August 2001
Vol. 109 • No. 2
August 2001