This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.
The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.
You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.close box
Soldier flies in the subfamily Parhadrestiinae are very rare and found only in Chile. Parhadresia curico has been collected in Nothofagus forests (Woodley 2001). Cretaceogaster was described from Cretaceous aged Canadian amber (Teskey 1971).
Parhadrestiinae is distinguished by the fusion of antennal flagellomeres to 1 or 2 segments (Woodley 2001). It is the only subfamily in which the male hypandrium is not fused to the gonocoxites, the fused parameres of the phallic complex are not reduced in size, the male eighth abdominal sternite is not strongly reduced, veins R4 and R5 are nearly parallel beyond their fork, and the apical section of vein CuA2 is straight (Woodley 2001).
Woodley (1986, 2001) convincingly demonstrates that Parhadrestiinae is the sister group to all other Stratiomyidae. The morphological evidence for this relationship is strong. This result is corroborated by Brammer and von Dohlen's (2007) phylogenetic analysis of the soldier flies.
Brammer, C.A. and C.D. von Dohlen. 2007. The evolutionary history of Stratiomyidae (Insecta: Diptera): the molecular phylogeny of a diverse family of flies. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 43:660-73.
Teskey, H.J. 1971. A new soldier fly from Canadian amber (Diptera: Stratiomyidae). Can. Entomol. 103: 1659-1661
Woodley, N.E. 1986. Parhadrestiinae, a new subfamily for Parhadrestia James and Cretaceogaster Teskey (Diptera: Stratiomyidae). Syst. Entomol. 11: 377-387
Woodley, N. E. 2001. A World Catalog of the Stratiomyidae (Insecta: Diptera). Myia 11: 1-473. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Keith Bayless at
Page copyright © 2008 Keith Bayless
All Rights Reserved.
- First online 28 September 2008
- Content changed 28 September 2008
Citing this page:
Bayless, Keith. 2008. Parhadrestiinae. Version 28 September 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Parhadrestiinae/23954/2008.09.28 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/