Generic‐level relationships within the ant subfamily Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

摘要

AbstractA cladistic analysis was undertaken to determine relationships among extant genera of the ant subfamily Dolichoderinae. Twenty‐one of the twenty‐two currently recognized genera within the subfamily were examined using 104 morphological characters. A single fully resolved, most‐parsimonious tree was found when a combination of ordered and unordered characters was used. When all characters were coded as unordered, seventy most‐parsimonious trees were found. The following results were found with both character coding methods.Leptomyrmexwas placed basal to the remainder of the subfamily and the monophyletic setsDolichoderus+Liometopum+Axinidris+Tapinoma+Technomyrmex, Froggattella+Iridomyrmex+Ochetellus+Papyrius+Philidris+Turneria, andBothriomyrmex+Dorymyrmex + Forelius + Loweriellawere suggested. The generaLinepithemaandDoleromyrmashowed a small amount of instability in moving between neighbouring sister groups when the character coding method changed. The generaAnillidrisandAnonychomyrmawere difficult to place as they showed major differences in their positions between the two character coding