Phylogenetic analysis of higher‐level relationships of Odonata

<jats:p><jats:bold>Abstract.</jats:bold>This is the most comprehensive analysis of higher‐level relationships in Odonata conducted thus far. The analysis was based on a detailed study of the skeletal morphology and wing venation of adults, complemented with a few larval characters, resulting in 122 phylogenetically informative characters. Eighty‐five genera from forty‐five currently recognized families and subfamilies were examined. In most cases, several species were chosen to serve as exemplars for a given genus. The seven fossil outgroup taxa included were exemplar genera from five successively more distant odonatoid orders and suborders: Tarsophlebiidae (the closest sister group of Odonata, previously placed as a family within ‘Anisozygoptera’), Archizygoptera, Protanisoptera, Protodonata and Geroptera. Parsimony analysis of the data, in which characters were treated both under equal weights and implied weighting, produced cladograms that were highly congruent, and in spite of considerable homoplasy in the odonate data, many groupings in the most parsimonious cladograms were well supported in all analyses, as indicated by Bremer support. The analyses supported the monophyly of both Anisoptera and Zygoptera, contrary to the well known hypothesis of zygopteran paraphyly. Within Zygoptera, two large sister clades were indicated, one comprised of the classical (Selysian) Calopterygoidea, except that Amphipterygidae, which have traditionally been placed as a calopterygoid family, nested within the other large zygopteran clade comprised of Fraser's ‘Lestinoidea’ plus ‘Coenagrionoidea’ (both of which were shown to be paraphyletic as currently defined).<jats:italic>Philoganga</jats:italic>alone appeared as the sister group to the rest of the Zygoptera in unweighted cladograms, whereas<jats:italic>Philoganga + Diphlebia</jats:italic>comprised the sister group to the remaining Zygoptera in all weighted cladograms. ‘Anisozygoptera’ was confirmed as a paraphyletic assemblage that forms a ‘grade’ towards the true Anisoptera, with<jats:italic>Epiophlebia</jats:italic>as the most basal taxon. Within Anisoptera, Petaluridae appeared as the sister group to other dragonflies.</jats:p>