Total‐evidence phylogeny of the coastal<i>Cafius</i>complex (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and its new generic concepts
In‐Seong Yoo, Jeong‐Hun Song, Kee‐Jeong Ahn
Abstract
Abstract The marine littoral rove beetle genus Cafius Stephens and related genera have been known to be an extraordinarily heterogeneous group and are taxonomically dispersed among several lineages of coastal Staphylininae. A phylogenetic analysis of this Cafius complex is performed based on morphological and molecular characters in order to classify them into lower taxonomic categories and to establish a robust generic concept. The data set was comprised of 94 morphological characters for 50 species, and partial COI , COII , 12S rDNA, 16S rDNA, AK , TP and nearly complete sequences of 18S rDNA for 44 species. The Cafius complex was strongly supported as a monophylum by all analyses. However, the genus Cafius and nearly all of its subgenera were not supported as being monophyletic. All analyses of combined data and concatenated molecular data showed the monophyly of four major clades nested inside Cafius (A–D). Clade E was supported only by the Bayesian analysis of combined data. The genus Phucobius was recovered as a monophylum within the Cafius complex but nested in clade D in all analyses. The genus Remus was not monophyletic but formed a clade including three other Cafius species (clade E3) within the Cafius complex in all analyses. The genus Thinocafius formed a monophylum with three other New Zealand Cafius species (clade B) within the Cafius complex in all analyses except for morphological trees. Some criteria for generic concepts within the Cafius complex are discussed. A single monophyletic genus with three new generic synonyms, and 10 new combinations are proposed.