Chrysomyinae (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is monophyletic: a molecular systematic analysis

The subfamily Chrysomyinae includes blowflies of considerable ecological and applied importance. Previous extensive morphological investigations have affirmed chrysomyine monophyly, but did not support the monophyly of traditional chrysomyine tribes. Conversely, molecular systematic analyses suggested a para‐ or polyphyletic Chrysomyinae. Conflicting hypotheses have been proposed about the tribe‐level classification, and about the relationships of the obligate bird parasites Protocalliphora Hough and Trypocalliphora Peus. To understand chrysomyine evolution better, we reconstructed phylogenies of the Chrysomyinae based on 2285 bp of combined data from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 (COI) and nuclear carbamoylphosphate synthetase (CPS) genes. Maximum parsimony (MP), maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian analysis (BA) strongly supported the monophyly of Chrysomyinae and the paraphyly of the tribe Chrysomyini. BA and ML yielded a monophyletic tribe Phormiini, but this was unresolved by MP. A sister‐group relationship between Trypocalliphora and Protocalliphora indicates that obligate bird parasitism evolved once within the Calliphoridae. For the first time all Neotropical genera (Cochliomyia Townsend, Compsomyiops Townsend, Paralucilia Brauer and Bergenstamm, Hemilucilia Brauer and Chloroprocta Wulp) were found to comprise a single lineage, and Chrysomya Robineau‐Desvoidy, traditionally a member of Chrysomyini, was found to be closer to the Phormiini. Similarly, Hemilucilia + Chloroprocta was a monophyletic group. Every genus for which we examined more than one species was monophyletic.