The nomenclature of morphological characters follows Dressler (1981) and Szlachetko (1995).
We found only one clear morphological synapomorphic character following the phylogenetic relationships of myxozoans.
Photographs demonstrating how the following morphological characters were measured: (A) forespan, (B) snout-vent length, (C) gape width, (D) hindspan, (E) head depth, and (F) toe pad width.
We measured the following male morphological characters: head width, thorax length, hind femur length, harp area, mirror area, and the number of teeth in a file.
The distinctiveness of Otophryne from all other NWM was noted earlier based on the following unique combination of morphological characters: omosternum present, clavicles straight, and a well-developed tympanum [ 50].
A re-analysis of morphological characters of the nymphs of B. macani (following a molecular study) provided diagnostic markers for identification of some lineages identified by DNA haplotypes [ 16].
The morphological matrix was developed for this study by coding morphological characters for Physcomitrella but otherwise follows the morphological matrix used in previous studies [ 3, 5, 54].
Morphological characters of thrips specimens were examined to confirm their identity, following Mound and Monteiro [ 27] and Mound et al. [ 37].
Moreover, several phylogenetic hypotheses among congeners have been proposed but have had the following shortcomings: the use of homoplasious morphological characters, the use of character codification and polarisation methods that lacked objectivity, and incomplete taxonomic sampling.
