Dr Nikolas P. Johnston1,2, Prof. Krzysztof Szpila3, Prof. James F. Wallman2, A/Prof. Kelly A. Meiklejohn4, Dr. Cristian Beza-Beza6, A/Prof. Thomas Pape7, Prof. Brian Wiegmann5

1Molecular Horzions Institute, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, University Of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia, 2School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, Australia, 3Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Toruń, Poland, 4College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, 5Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, 6Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, 7Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Biography:

Dr Nikolas Johnston is a lecturer within the School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience at the University of Wollongong. His research focuses on leveraging big data to enhance biological research with a focus on biodiversity genomics, phylogenomics, and integrative taxonomy. His research interests also include insect systematics, forensic entomology, and insect pathogen interactions.

Abstract:

The Calliphoridae are a complex group of flies that includes numerous representative subfamilies and genera. However, because the family has relatively few strong unifying apomorphic characters, it has been subject to several recent major changes in composition, such as the raising of the subfamily Polleniinae to family status as Polleniidae.

Furthermore, the position and relationships between the Australian Calliphoridae, particularly the genera Calliphora and Onesia, and the global fauna have been widely debated over the past century, with many species interchanged between the genera. Despite attempts at resolving the phylogeny of this group, to date there has been no study that has paired a broad representative taxon sample of the Australian Calliphoridae with robust molecular data capable of resolving complex relationships with strong support.

Our applications of anchored hybrid enrichment and mitogenome capture approaches, in combination with the most comprehensively sampled calliphorid phylogeny to date, has allowed us unprecedented insights into the systematics of the subfamilies Calliphorinae, Chrysomyinae and Luciliinae by revealing new information on the relationships between their constituent genera. Interestingly, there appears to be a strongly supported divide within the Calliphorinae, which renders the genus Calliphora non-monophyletic, unless including also Bellardia, Onesia and other taxa usually given generic rank. This talk will discuss the implications of our new phylogeny on the taxonomy and systematics of the Calliphorinae, Chrysomyinae and Luciliinae with an emphasis on the position of the Australian and New Zealand species. We also show how adult and larval morphology supports our molecular results.