Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 26, 2026

A Single-fly Assay for Foraging Behavior in Drosophila
Published on: November 4, 2013
A phylogeny of robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) at the subfamilial level: molecular evidence
Seth M Bybee1, Sean D Taylor, C Riley Nelson
1Department of Integrative Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. sb38@email.byu.edu
Abstract:
We present the first formal analysis of phylogenetic relationships among the Asilidae, based on four genes: 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, and cytochrome oxidase II. Twenty-six ingroup taxa representing 11 of the 12 described subfamilies were selected to produce a phylogenetic estimate of asilid subfamilial relationships via optimization alignment, parsimony, and maximum likelihood techniques. Phylogenetic analyses support the monophyly of Asilidae with Leptogastrinae as the most basal robber fly lineage. Apocleinae+(Asilinae+Ommatiinae) is supported as monophyletic. The laphriinae-group (Laphriinae+Laphystiinae) and the dasypogoninae-group (Dasypogoninae+Stenopogoninae+Stichopogoninae+ Trigonomiminae) are paraphyletic. These results suggest that current subfamilial classification only partially reflects robber fly phylogeny, indicating the need for further phylogenetic investigation of this group.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Phylogeny
Phylogenetic Trees
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Microbial Phylogeny

