A Molecular Phylogeny for Yponomeutoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Ditrysia) and Its Implications for Classification, Biogeography and the Evolution of Host Plant Use

Abstract

BackgroundYponomeutoidea, 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 FindingsEight 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. Monophyly for Yponomeutoidea was supported very strongly when the 18 “rogue” taxa were excluded, and moderately otherwise. Results from different analyses are highly congruent and relationships within Yponomeutoidea are well supported overall. There is strong support overall for monophyly of families previously recognized on morphological grounds, including Yponomeutidae, Ypsolophidae, Plutellidae, Glyphipterigidae, Argyresthiidae, Attevidae, Praydidae, Heliodinidae, and Bedelliidae. We also assign family rank to Scythropiinae (Scythropiidae stat. rev.), which in our trees are strongly grouped with Bedelliidae, in contrast to all previous proposals. We present a working hypothesis of among-family relationships, and an informal higher classification. Host plant family associations of yponomeutoid subfamilies and families are non-random, but show no trends suggesting parallel phylogenesis. Our analyses suggest that previous characterizations of yponomeutoids as predominantly Holarctic were based on insufficient sampling.Conclusions/SignificanceWe provide the first robust molecular phylogeny for Yponomeutoidea, together with a revised classification and new insights into their life history evolution and biogeography.

Designation of a new family group name, Tonzidae fam. nov., for the genus Tonza (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutoidea), based on immature stages of Tonza citrorrhoa

“…13). The multigene analyses by Sohn et al (2013) supported the family Glyphipterigidae comprising three subfamilies, Glyphipteriginae, Acrolepiinae Heinemann , 1870, and Orthoteliinae Herrich-Schaffer, 1857. Our COI phylogeny failed to recover such relationships.…”

“…Leaf webbing larvae occur in several yponomeutoid families, Yponomeutidae, Scythropiidae, Plutellidae, Ypsolophidae (Ypsolophinae) and Attevidae (Sohn et al 2013). However, larvae of Tonza form rather Kyrki (1984Kyrki ( , 1990, Dugdale et al (1998), Nasu et al (2011), Sohn & Wu (2013.…”

Systematics, phylogeny and biology of a new genus of Lithocolletinae (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) associated with Cistaceae

“…These tiny, attractive, distinctively ornate moths represent a highly successful lineage of Gracillariidae (Kawahara et al 2011) and are placed phylogenetically among the ditrysian moths within the complex clade of the superfamilies Yponomeutoidea + Gracillarioidea (Mutanen et al 2010;Sohn et al 2013;Regier et al 2013). The great majority of taxa within this complex possess diverse plant mining life histories (Grimaldi & Engel 2005;Sohn et al 2013).…”

New Records of Yponomeutoid Moths (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae, Argyresthiidae, Ypsolophidae, Plutellidae) from the Palaearctic Region

“…Th e taxonomic status of the families mentioned in this paper is given according to Sohn et al (2013). Later this classifi cation has been adopted for the recent World Catalogue of Insects (Lewis and Sohn, 2015).…”

“…Th ese moths appear to pose various biological problems that make them suitable for evolutionary and in particular phylogenetic studies such as molecular phylogeny (Pavliček & Nevo, 1995;Menken, 1996;Ulenberg, 2009;Turner et al, 2010;Sohn et al 2013; Lewis & Sohn, 2015). However, the relationships within this group of phytophagous Microlepidoptera was not fully investigated till now, and one of the reasons is that its taxonomic diversity has not been suffi ciently studied yet.…”