Phylogenetic Relationships among Different Members of the Drosophila bipectinata Species Complex: Historical Perspective
B. N. Singh *
Genetics Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Genus Drosophila (Insecta: Diptera) which is considered as an excellent biological model, has rich species diversity and is further divided into different subgenera: Dorsilopha, Dudaica, Drosophila and Sophophora. Subgenus is further divided into species groups, species subgroups, species complexes and species clusters. In the ananassae subgroup of the melanogaster species group of the subgeneus Sophophora, there are three species complexes: ananassae. bipectinata and ercepeae based on male genital morphology. There are four species in the bipectinata complex: D. bipectinata, D. malerkotliana, D. parabipectinata and D.pseudoananassae which also contains subspecies except D. parabipectinata. A number of investigations have been done on these species pertaining to geographical distribution, taxonomy, degree of crossability, genetic basis of hybrid male sterility, inversion, allozyme and DNA polymorphisms, sexual isolation, sex comb morphology and phylogeny. While employing the results of these studies, the phylogenetic relationships among these species have been discussed by various investigators at different time intervals and different phylogenetic relationships have been proposed.
Keywords: Drosophila bipectinata species complex, phylogenetic relationship, historical perspectives