Target Species
An overview of target species that are deemed to be important for phylogenetic analyses dealing with Asilidae is provided here.
Most of the target taxa will be available for morphological work through museum collections, but it seems important to make an effort now to collect these species also for molecular studies for future projects. That is why we encourage members of the Diptera research-community to collect these species.
What do we mean by target taxa?
When a genus is a major part of the fauna of a particular zoogeographical region it should be included in phylogenetic studies of the entire Asilidae or subtaxa of it.
Other genera that have a very widespread distribution and are exceptionally speciose, e.g. Promachus Loew, 1848 or Leptogaster Meigen, 1803 (to name only two), should be included as well to understand the radiations of these genera and their relationship to other, not so speciose sister taxa and investigate the monophyly of these taxa.
Yet other genera are included because of peculiar morphological characters or because they are the only representative of a subfamily in a particular region.
All genera that are type genera for family-group taxa, e.g. subfamily taxa, tribal taxa, or other subtaxa, should also be included in phylogenetic studies.
Lists provided
list of species important for molecular phylogenetic studies
available species for molecular phylogenetic studies
list of Asilidae species included in the morphological phylogenetic study by Torsten Dikow (Dikow 2009a) - see also
list of Leptogastrinae species planned to be included in the morphological phylogenetic study by Torsten Dikow
