Jonathan Liria

1. Morphophylogeny in 41 sand flies species
(Diptera: Phlebotominae) of medical importance
PhD. Jonathan Liria
Grupo de investigación en Población y Ambiente, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Napo –
Ecuador. Centro de Estudios en Zoología Aplicada, Universidad de Carabobo. Carabobo –
Venezuela. Grupo de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Zoonosis y Salud Pública, Universidad
Central del Ecuador – Ecuador. Email: jonathan.liria@ikiam.edu.ec
Blog: cladisticaybiogeografia.blogspot.com

2. INTRODUCTION
Sand flies are the main vectors of
Leishmaniasis:
http://leishmania.ird.fr/country
https://www.who.int/gho/neglected_diseases/leishmaniasis/en/
Phylogeny...
• Traditional discrete data (morphology)
• Molecular data
Geometric morphometrics…

3. MATERIAL AND METHODS
•Tree comparisons:
-SPR
-RF
-CI
Taxonomy tree
All data best tree
MRP tree
•Data blocks:
-Traditional morphometrics (19 ch; X ± SD)
-Wing landmarks (1 ch; 12 LMs)
Minimizing linear diff acording S. ghesquierei
-Head landmarks (1 ch; 7 LMs)
Minimizing linear diff acording S. ghesquierei
-Cytochrome Oxidase I (699 ch)
MAFFT alignment
•Search parameters:
TNT
-All blocks
-Excluding one block at time
-Analizing only one block
•OUTgroups: Sergentomyiina, 1 genus:
Sergentomyia 2 sp.
•INgroup: Lutzomyiina, 10 genera: 39 spp.
•Character mapping:
T r e e 0 , c h a r . 1 8 , 1 2 p o i n t s ( s c o r e : 6 . 8 0 5 5 8 )
T r _ u b i q u i t a l i s
S c _ f l u v i a t i l i s
P y _ w e l l c o m e i
P y _ s q u a m i v e n t r i s _ s q u a m i v e n t r i s
P y _ s q u a m i v e n t r i s _ m a r i p a e n s i s
P y _ c l a u s t r e i
P y _ c h a g a s i
P i _ y o u n g i
P i _ v e r r a c a r u m
P i _ t o w n s e n d i
P i _ t o r v i d a
P i _ o v a l l e s i
P i _ e v a n s i
P i _ c o l u m b i a n a
P i _ c h r i s t o p h e i
N y _ y l e p h i l e t o r
N y _ u m b r a t i l i s
N y _ o l m e c a _ o l m e c a
N y _ o l m e c a _ n o c i v a
N y _ o l m e c a _ b i c o l o r
N y _ i n t e r m e d i a
N y _ a n t u n e s i
N y _ a n d u z e i
L u _ d i a b o l i c a
L u _ c r u c i a t a
L u _ p e r u e n s i s
L u _ a y a c u c h e n s i s
D a _ a n t h o p h o r a
B i _ r e d u c t a
S e _ c o l l a r t i
S e _ g h e s q u i e r e i
P y _ p a r a e n s i s
P y _ c a r r e r a i
P s _ s h a n n o n i
P i _ p e s s o a i
P i _ n u n e z t o v a r i
N y _ f l a v i s c u t e l l a t a
L u _ g o m e z i
L u _ l o n g i p a l p i s
L u _ h a r t m a n n i
E v _ p i n o t t i i
Head
Wing
PAST: Configurations
tpsspline
RAS-TBR

4. RESULTS
Node 46
Lutzomyiina
(Head + COI)
All blocks best tree (L=1734.92 steps)
Node 49
(Wing)
T r e e 0 :
T r _ u b i q u i t a l i s
S c _ f l u v i a t i l i s
P y _ w e l l c o m e i
P y _ s q u a m i v e n t r i s _ s q u a m i v e n t r i s
P y _ s q u a m i v e n t r i s _ m a r i p a e n s i s
P y _ c l a u s t r e i
P y _ c h a g a s i
P i _ y o u n g i
P i _ v e r r u c a r u m
P i _ t o w n s e n d i
P i _ t o r v i d a
P i _ o v a l l e s i
P i _ e v a n s i
P i _ c o l u m b i a n a
P i _ c h r i s t o p h e i
N y _ y l e p h i l e t o r
N y _ u m b r a t i l i s
B i _ o l m e c a _ o l m e c a
B i _ o l m e c a _ n o c i v a
B i _ o l m e c a _ b i c o l o r
N y _ i n t e r m e d i a
N y _ a n t u n e s i
N y _ a n d u z e i
L u _ d i a b o l i c a
L u _ c r u c i a t a
L u _ p e r u e n s i s
L u _ a y a c u c h e n s i s
D a _ a n t h o p h o r a
B i _ r e d u c t a
S e _ c o l l a r t i
S e _ g h e s q u i e r e i
P y _ p a r a e n s i s
P y _ c a r r e r a i
P s _ s h a n n o n i
P i _ p e s s o a i
P i _ n u n e z t o v a r i
B i _ f l a v i s c u t e l l a t a
L u _ g o m e z i
L u _ l o n g i p a l p i s
L u _ h a r t m a n n i
E v _ p i n o t t i i
Wing
Head
Node 68
Bichoromyia
(Head + COI)
Tree
Comparisons
(% similarity):
All blocks:
73% wings
Taxonomy:
62% wings
MRP:
43% wings

5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The most parsimonious tree found with all blocks showed the best taxonomy fit in Lutzomyiina
subtribe (0.80) and Bichoromyia genus (0.80); these clades are supported by synapomorphies
in head morphometrics and molecular data: Landmark displacements of fronto-clypeal region in
Lutzomyiina and Bichoromyia.
Tree topology comparisons showed that wing landmarks are important character blocks.
However, we consider that all blocks are needed for a better cladistics hypothesis explanation
in this group because some characters or combined blocks support internal clades.
The sand flies relationships in some groups were similar to those of Grace-Lema et al. (2015);
e.g. the monophyly of Lutzomyiina. They used eight molecular markers: Cac, COI, CytB, EF-
1a, ITS, LR, ND4, and Para.
Our results are preliminary, however, this is the first attempt to combining different character
blocks in Phlebotominae. And reveals the importance of geometric morphometrics used in
parsimony context.