Analysis of RNA-Seq, DNA Target Enrichment, and Sanger Nucleotide Sequence Data Resolves Deep Splits in the Phylogeny of Cuckoo Wasps (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae)

Abstract

The wasp family Chrysididae (cuckoo wasps, gold wasps) comprises exclusively parasitoid and kleptoparasitic species, many of which feature a stunning iridescent coloration and phenotypic adaptations to their parasitic life style. Previous attempts to infer phylogenetic relationships among the family’s major lineages (subfamilies, tribes, genera) based on Sanger sequence data were insufficient to statistically resolve the monophyly and the phylogenetic position of the subfamily Amiseginae and the phylogenetic relationships among the tribes Allocoeliini, Chrysidini, Elampini, and Parnopini (Chrysidinae). Here, we present a phylogeny inferred from nucleotide sequence data of 492 nuclear single-copy genes (230,915 aligned amino acid sites) from 94 species of Chrysidoidea (representing Bethylidae, Chrysididae, Dryinidae, Plumariidae) and 45 outgroup species by combining RNA-seq and DNA target enrichment data. We find support for Amiseginae being more closely related to Cleptinae than to Chrysidinae. Furthermore, we find strong support for Allocoeliini being the sister lineage of all remaining Chrysidinae, whereas Elampini represent the sister lineage of Chrysidini and Parnopini. Our study corroborates results from a recent phylogenomic investigation, which revealed Chrysidoidea as likely paraphyletic.

Evidence for a chemical arms race between cuckoo wasps of the genus Hedychrum and their distantly related host apoid wasps

“…To shed light on chemical adaptations in host-brood parasite species pairs, we investigated coevolutionary patterns in CHC profiles across species, using cuckoo wasps of the genus Hedychrum (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae: Elampini) and their distantly related hosts, apoid wasps of the genera Cerceris and Philanthus (Hymenoptera: Philanthidae) [30][31][32][33], as models. Females of Cerceris and Philanthus species dig brood cells in the ground and provision their larvae with paralyzed prey, which consists either of beetles (Coleoptera-hunting wasps: COLw) or of stinging wasps and bees (Hymenopterahunting wasps: HYMw).…”

A remarkable new family of stinging wasps from the Cretaceous of Myanmar and China (Hymenoptera, Aculeata)

“…Although Brothers' (1975) classification still is in use today, recent phylogenetic analyses based on molecular data have put in doubt the monophyly of Chrysidoidea and Vespoidea (Pilgrim et al 2008;Heraty et al 2011;Johnson et al 2013;Branstetter et al 2017;Pauli et al 2021). The families Dryinidae, Embolemidae and Sclerogibbidae, which form a clade supported by both morphology and molecules (Carpenter, 1986;Brothers and Carpenter 1993;Brothers 2011;Branstetter et al 2017), have been recovered either as sister group of the Aculeata s. str.…”

“…(Branstetter et al 2017) or being the sister clade of a group formed by the remaining Chrysidoidea families plus the Aculeata s.str. (Pauli et al 2021). On the other hand, the Vespoidea can be split in at least three lineages, with the Formicidae being consistently recovered as sister group to the Apoidea (Pilgrim et al 2008;Johnson et al 2013;Branstetter et al 2017;Peters et al 2017).…”

Systematics and evolution of predatory flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) based on exon‐capture sequencing

“…The baitfisher software (Mayer et al, 2016) was developed to design hybrid enrichment baits from multiple sequence alignments for a wide range of scenarios, including exon capture of less similar sequences, with the aim to minimize the number of required baits for the taxonomic group of interest. The strategy to enrich orthologous single‐copy protein‐coding genes has successfully been applied to several plant families (Li et al, 2017) and to different metazoan taxa such as stony corals (Anthozoa: Scleractinia; Quek et al, 2020), sea spiders (Pycnogonida: Pantopoda; Dietz et al, 2019), isopods (Malacostraca: Isopoda; Stringer et al, 2021), wasps (Insecta: Hymenoptera; Bank et al, 2017; Klopfstein et al, 2019; Maletti et al, 2021; Mayer et al, 2016; Pauli et al, 2021), butterflies and moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera; Call et al, 2021; Mayer et al, 2021), and cockroaches (Insecta: Blattodea; Evangelista et al, 2021). Moreover, it has also been successfully used in freshwater macrozoobenthos metabarcoding (Gauthier et al, 2020) and environmental DNA studies (Giebner et al, 2020).…”