Evolvability and Evolution of Diptera presents the first book-length exploration of phylo–evo–devo built around a single, extraordinarily diverse animal group. Integrating phylogeny, developmental biology, genetics, morphology, and fossils, the book examines how developmental systems shape evolutionary possibilities across multiple taxonomic levels and along the entire life cycle, from larva to adult.
Rather than focusing on adaptation and the survival of the fittest, this volume addresses a central question of evolutionary developmental biology: the arrival of the fittest. By analyzing which changes are easy, difficult, or effectively impossible given a species’ developmental architecture, evolvability is placed at the heart of evolutionary explanation. Diptera offer an ideal case study, combining immense structural diversity, strong developmental modularity between larval and adult stages, and an unmatched depth of information available for model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster.
Bridging natural history and experimental developmental genetics, and re-examining classical and overlooked sources alongside modern data, this book offers a coherent and innovative framework for understanding evolutionary novelty, constraints, and disparity. It will be essential reading for evolutionary biologists, developmental biologists, and entomologists interested in how development channels the course of evolution.
About the Author :
Alessandro Minelli was Professor of Zoology at the Faculty of Science of the University of Padova until his retirement in October 2011. Since the mid-90s, his main scientific interest has been evolutionary developmental biology, with particular reference to the origin and evolution of serial and modular structures such as arthropod segments and appendages. Alessandro is a founding member (1987) and Vice President (1997-99) of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology and a current or past member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Evolution & Development, Frontiers in Zoology, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, Organisms Diversity and Evolution, Theory in Biosciences, and Zootaxa. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Evolutionary Developmental Biology from 2014 to 2017. In 2024 he has been awarded by the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists the Kowalevsky Medal for his achievements in evolutionary developmental biology and comparative zoology.
Daniele Sommaggio is an entomologist specializing in Diptera, with over twenty years of research on the taxonomy, morphology, and ecology of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae). His work spans faunistic surveys, functional biodiversity, the use of insects as bioindicators, and the evolutionary interpretation of morphological patterns in Diptera. He has authored more than 80 scientific publications, contributed to the curation and study of major entomological collections, and served as reviewer for international initiatives in dipteran systematics and biodiversity assessment.
