Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Is it the end of Limoniidae?

Posted by Gunnar M Kvifte on 15-06-2010 08:53
#4

It was us dipterists' idea to have monophyly as a criterion for taxonomic validity to begin with. It is a good criterion, because it makes the classification testable and thus scientific - with the accumulation of additional evidence it gets progressively more accurate. However, for practical reasons we should be very conservative in what we consider sufficient evidence - to maintain a sense of stability, most family- and genus-level groups should be defined on the basis of synapomorphies rather than on clade-based definitions.
I will myself probably continue classifying Tipuloids as Tipulidae, Cylindrotomidae, Pediciidae and "Limoniidae", with the latter family in quotation marks to recognize its paraphyly. A new family-level classification should wait until synapomorphies are found grouping the various "Limoniid" subfamilies.