Calcaronea (Borojevic, Boury-Esnault & Vacelet, 2000)

Subclass Calcaronea View in CoL

As in previous Calcaronean phylogenies where different DNA markers were analysed (18S and 28S: Dohrmann et al., 2006; 28S: Voigt et al., 2012; Klautau et al., 2016 and C-LSU: Voigt & Wörheide, 2016), our C-LSU phylogenetic reconstruction recovered several taxa as non-monophyletic.

Voigt et al. (2012) found the family Amphoriscidae not to be a monophyletic group; however, they could not elucidate the affinities within each Amphoriscidae genus as enough sequences were not available. Klautau et al. (2016) recovered a well-supported clade (pp = 0.95, b = 0.64) formed only by Paraleucilla species ( P. magna and P. dalmatica ), which suggested the possible monophyly of that genus. In the present study, using a larger set of sequences, we confirmed that Amphoriscidae is not monophyletic and refuted the monophyly of Paraleucilla and Leucilla .

With a reduced number of Heteropiidae sequences (n = 2: Sycettusa sp. and Vosmaeropsis sp. ), Manuel et al. (2003, 2004) supported the monophyly of that family. In subsequent studies using more sequences ( Dohrmann et al., 2006; Voigt et al., 2012), Heteropiidae was not recovered as a monophyletic taxon and nor were the Heteropiidae genera Sycettusa and Ute . In this work, we found Grantessa , another Heteropiidae genus, as not monophyletic.

Sycon View in CoL is one of the largest genera within Calcaronea View in CoL , currently including 90 species. Nonetheless, our knowledge of the molecular phylogenetic affinities within this genus is based only on a few species. As in previous phylogenies ( Manuel et al., 2003, 2004; Dorhman et al., 2006; Voigt et al., 2012; Klautau et al., 2016; Voigt & Wörheide, 2016), Sycon View in CoL was recovered as a polyphyletic genus in this study.

In Calcaronea View in CoL , our results corroborated that the C-LSU marker is suitable for species identification as proposed by Voigt & Wörheide (2016); nonetheless, the correct allocation of these species to genera was not possible when only considering molecular information. An integrative revision including morphology and new molecular markers is necessary to improve the systematics of Calcaronea View in CoL .