New Cretaceous empidoids and the Mesozoic dance fly revolution (Diptera: Empidoidea)

• DOI: 10.1111/cla.12536
• Publication Date: 2023-04-20T16:57:29Z
• Authors: Davide Badano; Bradley J. Sinclair; Qingqing Zhang; Francesca Palermo; Nicola Pieroni; Laura Maugeri; Michela Fratini; Pierfilippo Cerretti
• Keywords: Male; New Cretaceous; Fossils; Diptera; Amber inclusion; Diptera; Cretaceous; Empidoidea; Animals; X-ray phase-contrast tomography; phylogenetic analyses; Bayes Theorem; 15. Life on land; Dance flies; Phylogeny; Ecosystem

Abstract Dance flies and relatives (Empidoidea) are a diverse ecologically important group of Diptera in nearly all modern terrestrial ecosystems. Their fossil record, despite being scattered, attests to long evolutionary history dating back the early Mesozoic. Here, we describe seven new species Empidoidea from Cretaceous Kachin amber inclusions, assigning them genus Electrochoreutes gen.n. (type species: trisetigerus sp.n. ) based on unique apomorphies among known Diptera. Like many extant dance flies, males characterized by species‐specific sexually dimorphic traits, which likely have played role courtship. The fine anatomy fossils was investigated through high‐resolution X‐ray phase‐contrast microtomography reconstruct their phylogenetic affinities within empidoid clade, using cladistic reasoning. Morphology‐based analyses including selection family‐ subfamily‐ranked clades along with representatives extinct Mesozoic genera, were performed broad range analytical methods (maximum parsimony, maximum‐likelihood Bayesian inference). These converged reconstructing as stem‐group representative Dolichopodidae, suggesting that complex mating rituals evolved this lineage during Cretaceous.