Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear data in haematophagous flies support the paraphyly of the genus Stomoxys (Diptera: Muscidae)

The genus Stomoxys Geoffroy (Diptera; Muscidae) contains species of parasitic flies that are of medical and economic importance. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis including 10 representative species of the genus including multiple exemplars, together with the closely related genera Prostomoxys Zumpt, Haematobosca Bezzi, and Haematobia Lepeletier & Serville. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods from DNA fragments from the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI, 753 bp) and cytochrome b (CytB, 587 bp) mitochondrial genes, and the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2, 426 bp). The combination of mitochondrial and nuclear data strongly supports the paraphyly of the genus Stomoxys because of the inclusion of Prostomoxys saegerae Zumpt. This unexpected result suggests that Prostomoxys should be renamed into Stomoxys. Also, the deep molecular divergence observed between the subspecies Stomoxys niger niger Macquart and S. ni...