Overview of fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) classification, diversity and phylogenetic relationships

True fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are a large and economically important family, with approximately 5000 recognized species, including dozens of species that are significant pests of commercial and subsistence fruit crops or beneficial biological control agents of weeds. Their classification, diversity, biology and phylogeny are reviewed as an overview for this symposium. Tephritid higher classification has changed drastically over the last 30-40 years, largely on the basis of better understanding of fruit fly phylogeny due to increased study of genitalic characters and adoption of phylogenetic methods. Despite these improvements, major questions remain regarding the monophyly of and relationships among many higher taxa and even the extent of the family (status of subfamily Tachiniscinae). Molecular phylogenetic analysis across the family has been very limited. To address this problem our international team of collaborators is investigating tephritid phylogeny by analyzing loci obtained by anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) and transcriptome sequencing. We are attempting to sample as many genera as possible across the Tephritidae and related families of Tephritoidea. Progress is discussed and preliminary results are presented.