One of the great mysteries of evolutionary biology is why closely related lineages accumulate species at different rates. Theory predicts that populations undergoing strong sexual selection will more quickly differentiate because of increased potential for genetic isolation [1-6]. Whether or not these population genetic processes translate to more species at macroevolutionary scales remains contentious [7]. Here we show that lineages with bioluminescent courtship, almost certainly a sexually selected trait, have more species and faster rates of species accumulation than their non-luminous relatives. In each of ten distantly related animal lineages from insects, crustaceans, annelid worms, and fishes, we find more species in lineages with bioluminescent courtship compared to their sister groups. Furthermore, we find under a Yule model that lineages with bioluminescent courtship displays have significantly higher rates of species accumulation compared to a larger clade that includes them plus non-luminous relatives. In contrast, we do not find more species or higher rates in lineages that use bioluminescence for defense, a function presumably not under sexual selection. These results document an association between the origin of bioluminescent courtship and increased accumulation of species, supporting theory predicting sexual selection increases rates of speciation at macroevolutionary scales to influence global patterns of biodiversity.

Opsins, combined with a chromophore, are the primary light-sensing molecules in animals and are crucial for color vision. Throughout animal evolution, duplications and losses of opsin proteins are common, but it is unclear what is driving these gains and losses. Light availability is implicated, and dim environments are often associated with low opsin diversity and loss. Correlations between high opsin diversity and bright environments, however, are tenuous. To test if increased light availability is associated with opsin diversification, we examined diel niche and identified opsins using transcriptomes and genomes of 175 butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). We found 14 independent opsin duplications associated with bright environments. Estimating their rates of evolution revealed that opsins from diurnal taxa evolve faster—at least 13 amino acids were identified with higher dN/dS rates, with a subset close enough to the chromophore to tune the opsin. These results demonstrate that high light availability increases opsin diversity and evolution rate in Lepidoptera.

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera. Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin ~100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event. We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics. Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants.