Widespread and persistent invasions of terrestrial habitats coincident with larval feeding behavior transitions during snail-killing fly evolution (Diptera: Sciomyzidae)

Background: Transitions in habitats and feeding behaviors were fundamental to the diversification of life on Earth. There is ongoing debate regarding the typical directionality of transitions between aquatic and terrestrial habitats and the mechanisms responsible for the preponderance of terrestrial to aquatic transitions. Snail-killing flies (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) represent an excellent model system to study such transitions because their larvae display a range of feeding behaviors, being predators, parasitoids or saprophages of a variety of mollusks in freshwater, shoreline and dry terrestrial habitats. The remarkable genus Tetanocera (Tetanocerini) occupies five larval feeding groups and all of the habitat types mentioned above. This study has four principal objectives: (i) construct a robust estimate of phylogeny for Tetanocera and Tetanocerini, (ii) estimate the evolutionary transitions in larval feeding behaviors and habitats, (iii) test the monophyly of feeding groups and (iv) id...研究背景：生境转换与取食行为的演化是地球生命多样性分化的核心基础。当前学界针对水生与陆生生境间演化转变的典型方向，以及陆生向水生转变占多数的内在机制仍存在持续争论。食螺蝇类（Snail-killing flies，双翅目（Diptera）：沼蝇科（Sciomyzidae））是研究此类演化转变的理想模式类群：其幼虫展现出多样的取食策略，可作为淡水、岸线与干燥陆生生境中多种软体动物的捕食者、拟寄生者（parasitoid）或腐食者（saprophages）。极具代表性的Tetanocera属（Tetanocera）隶属于沼蝇族（Tetanocerini），涵盖5个幼虫取食类群，且覆盖上述全部生境类型。本研究包含四项核心目标：（一）构建Tetanocera属及沼蝇族的稳健系统发育推断框架；（二）推断幼虫取食行为与生境的演化转变路径；（三）验证各取食类群的单系性（monophyly）；（四）……