Polyxenidae, Lucas, 1840

Short, Megan & Vahtera, Varpu, 2017, Phylogenetic relationships of millipedes in the subclass Penicillata (Diplopoda) with a key to the genera, Journal of Natural History 51 (41 - 42), pp. 2443-2461 : 2455

Family Polyxenidae

This family contains the majority of species in the order and all the analyses show it to be polyphyletic. Condé and Nguyen Duy-Jacquemin (2008) revised the Silvestri (1948) classification of the order, proposing a subdivision of the family Polyxenidae into four subfamilies: Polyxeninae , Monographinae , Macroxeninae and Hypogexeninae . The lack of specimens of the monotypic genus Hypogexenus precludes it from this analysis. The ML analysis indicates weak support (BS <50%) for monophyly of Monographinae and Polyxeninae , although parsimony analysis suggests both are paraphyletic. In the parsimony analysis ( Figure 3 ) the subfamily Macroxeninae , represented in this study by one species Chilexenus rosendinus Silvestri, 1948 , is resolved as the sister group (JF 68%/71%) to a clade comprised of Synxenidae , (paraphyletic) Monographinae and Lophoproctidae . In the ML analysis this subfamily is resolved as the sister group (BS 50%) to a (paraphyletic) Lophoproctidae and Monographinae ( Figure 2 ).

Figures

Figure 2. Optimal maximum likelihood tree (lnL = −10,376.678214) based on molecular data (COI, 16S, 18S). Bootstrap support values (> 50%) shown on the nodes. Thelytokous populations of P. novaehollandiae (Silvestri, 1923) and the one confirmed thelytokous population of Polyxenus lagurus (Linnaeus, 1758) are marked with an asterisk.

Figure 3. Strict consensus of 626 MP trees based on combined morphological and molecular data. Jackknife (JF) support values (> 50%) shown above the nodes (in parentheses, JF values based on molecular data only). Thelytokous populations of Phryssonotus novaehollandiae (Silvestri, 1923) and the one confirmed thelytokous population of Polyxenus lagurus (Linnaeus, 1758) are marked with an asterisk.