16S mitochondrial sequences associate morphologically dissimilar males and females of the family Phoridae (Diptera)

The genus Phora (Diptera, Phoridae) includes more than 50 species widely distributed in temperate regions of Eurasia and Africa. Taxonomic identification of most species is based upon the morphology of the male hypopygium: hence for many species, including the type species of the genus, females are unknown. We used mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA sequences to match males with previously unidentified females from Phora atra , P. stictica , and P. holosericea . We then identified morphological characters that allow identification of females of P. atra and P. stictica without recourse to DNA sequencing. Our results show that small scale sequencing can aid in the development of taxonomic characters for use in the field to identify previously cryptic females. This iterative method of identifying populations genetically followed by re-examination of morphology should allow development of better keys for rapid identification of heretofore cryptic populations of insects. We also found that sequences from individual of P. holosericea from Cambridge, England and Malakhovka, Russia, were more similar to each other than to sequences from a conspecific fly also collected in Cambridge. This result suggests that there is previously un-suspected population structuring in this species.  © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2002, 77 , 267–273.