Clarification of the Taxonomic Status of Two <i>Alloxysta</i> Species Through Genetic Analysis (Figitidae: Charipinae)

Charipinae taxonomy has been always very problematic because of the large number of described species and unclear interspecific limits. Following the morphological characterisation, molecular information is now used to determine the boundaries between species. In this context, we compared two cosmop...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mar Ferrer-Suay, Victor Cuesta-Porta, Jesús Selfa, Juli Pujade-Villar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Diversity
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/17/5/362
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Charipinae taxonomy has been always very problematic because of the large number of described species and unclear interspecific limits. Following the morphological characterisation, molecular information is now used to determine the boundaries between species. In this context, we compared two cosmopolitan species: <i>Alloxysta victrix</i> (Westwood, 1833) and <i>Alloxysta consobrina</i> (Zetterstedt, 1838). Material from <i>Alloxysta tscheki</i> (Giraud, 1860) and <i>Alloxysta leunisii</i> (Hartig, 1841) was also included. An integrative phylogenetic study was performed using three molecular markers (COI, ITS2, and 16S) and a morphological matrix. Inter- and intraspecific genetic distances were calculated and compared with previous data. The results showed no differences between interspecific and intraspecific distances for the four studied species and no clear phylogenetic structure, in contrast to other well-resolved Charipinae species included in our analyses. In light of these findings, three new junior synonyms are established under <i>A. victrix</i> (Westwood, 1833): <i>A. consobrina</i> (Zetterstedt, 1838) <b>n. syn.</b>, <i>A. tscheki</i> (Giraud, 1860) <b>n. syn.</b>, and <i>A. leunisii</i> (Hartig, 1841) <b>n. syn.</b>
ISSN:1424-2818