Systematics of Baetidae: synthesis attempt and future challenges

JEAN-LUC GATTOLLIAT & CAROLINA NIETO

Alemania

Congreso; XVI International Symposium on Plecoptera & XII International conference on Ephemeroptera; 2008

The taxonomy of the Baetidae has been the subject of a lot of attention during the last three decades, with description of several new species and genera as well as generic revisions. The family now encompasses about 100 genera and 870 species which constitute one fourth of the world’s mayfly diversity. It is thus an opportune time to evaluate the pertinence of these works as well as to identify the geographical areas where we need more data and problems in generic delineation. Here we present a first worldwide phylogenetic reconstruction using morphological characters, which forms part of our ongoing work on a combined molecular and morphological phylogeny of the Baetidae. The morphological matrix includes nearly all genera (96) and two families as outgroups (Siphlonuridae and Siphlaenigmatidae). In all, 136 characters are included in a maximum parsimony analysis, 114 at the nymphal and 22 at the imaginal stages. We discuss the validity of the different subfamilies and main lineages of Baetidae.