Diversification and dispersal of the Hawaiian Drosophilidae: The evolution of Scaptomyza

•Phylogeny of genus Scaptomyza, based on 5 kbp of sequence and taxa from 13 subgenera.•Scaptomyza originated in the Hawaiian Islands and dispersed from there around the world.•The ecological niches this lineage exploits arose independently.•Support for the monophyly of all subgenera with some exceptions.

The genus Scaptomyza is emerging as a model lineage in which to study biogeography and ecological adaptation. To place future research on these species into an evolutionary framework we present the most comprehensive phylogeny of Scaptomyza to date, based on 5042 bp of DNA sequence data and representatives from 13 of 21 subgenera. We infer strong support for the monophyly of almost all subgenera with exceptions corroborating hypotheses of conflict inferred from previous taxonomic studies. We find evidence that the lineage originated in the Hawaiian Islands and subsequently dispersed to the mainland and other remote oceanic islands. We also identify that many of the unique ecological niches exploited by this lineage (e.g., herbivory, spider predation) arose singly and independently.

Graphical abstractDownload full-size image