Cladistic analysis of Egyptian horse flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) based on morphological data

Abstract

The family Tabanidae is one of the important families of superfamily Tabanoidea, having medical and veterinary importance. In Egypt, there is no strict cladistic approach on tabanid flies phylogeny yet. The 20 available Egyptian tabanids under 2 subfamilies are analyzed cladistically. Cladistic analysis is based on 91 morphological characters depending on Single linkage, UPGMA, Complete linkage clustering methods (Cophenetic correlation value). This produces a well-resolved and firmly supported phylogenetic hypothesis on the generic relationships. Based on our phylogenetic results, the revised classification of examined taxa is consistent with the conventional classification.