A Molecular Phylogeny for Yponomeutoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Ditrysia) and Its Implications for Classification, Biogeography and the Evolution of Host Plant Use
A Molecular Phylogeny for Yponomeutoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Ditrysia) and Its Implications for Classification, Biogeography and the Evolution of Host Plant Use Jae-Cheon Sohn1*, Jerome C. Regier1, Charles Mitter1, Donald Davis2, Jean-Franc¸ois Landry3, Andreas Zwick4, Michael P. Cummings5 1 Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America, 2 Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, United States of America, 3 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, C.E.F., Ottawa, Canada, 4 Department of Entomology, State Museum of Natural History, Stuttgart, Germany, 5 Laboratory of Molecular Evolution, Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America Abstract Background: Yponomeutoidea, one of the early-diverging lineages of ditrysian Lepidoptera, comprise about 1,800 species worldwide, including notable pests and insect-plant interaction models. Yponomeutoids were one of the earliest lepidopteran clades to evolve external feeding and to extensively colonize herbaceous angiosperms. Despite the group’s economic importance, and its value for tracing early lepidopteran evolution, the biodiversity and phylogeny of Yponomeutoidea have been relatively little studied. Methodology/Principal Findings: Eight nuclear genes (8 kb) were initially sequenced for 86 putative yponomeutoid species, spanning all previously recognized suprageneric groups, and 53 outgroups representing 22 families and 12 superfamilies. Eleven to 19 additional genes, yielding a total of 14.8 to 18.9 kb, were then sampled for a subset of taxa, including 28 yponomeutoids and 43 outgroups. Maximum likelihood analyses were conducted on data sets differing in numbers of genes, matrix completeness, inclusion/weighting of synonymous substitutions, and inclusion/exclusion of ‘‘rogue’’ taxa.
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