Mitochondrial genomes of two Australian fishflies with an evolutionary timescale of Chauliodinae

Abstract

Fishflies (Corydalidae: Chauliodinae) with a total of ca. 130 extant species are one of the major groups of the holometabolous insect order Megaloptera. As a group which originated during the Mesozoic, the phylogeny and historical biogeography of fishflies are of high interest. The previous hypothesis on the evolutionary history of fishflies was based primarily on morphological data. To further test the existing phylogenetic relationships and to understand the divergence pattern of fishflies, we conducted a molecule-based study. We determined the complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes of two Australian fishfly species, Archichauliodes deceptor Kimmins, 1954 and Protochauliodes biconicus Kimmins, 1954, both members of a major subgroup of Chauliodinae with high phylogenetic significance. A phylogenomic analysis was carried out based on 13 mt protein coding genes (PCGs) and two rRNAs genes from the megalopteran species with determined mt genomes. Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses recovered the Dysmicohermes clade as the sister group of the Archichauliodes clade + the Protochauliodes clade, which is consistent with the previous morphology-based hypothesis. The divergence time estimation suggested that the divergence among the three major subgroups of fishflies occurred during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous when the supercontinent Pangaea was undergoing sequential breakup.

Similar pattern, different paths: tracing the biogeographical history of Megaloptera (Insecta: Neuropterida) using mitochondrial phylogenomics

“…The split of three major clades in Chauliodinae and their relationships corroborates previous studies by Liu et al (2012) and Yang et al (2017). In the Protochauliodes clade, however, the disjunctly distributed genus Protochauliodes is polyphyletic.…”

“…(2012) and Yang et al. (2017). In the Protochauliodes clade, however, the disjunctly distributed genus Protochauliodes is polyphyletic.…”

Evolutionary history of the complex polymorphic dobsonfly genus Neoneuromus (Megaloptera: Corydalidae)

“…The time intervals of some deep nodes are rather broad. Nevertheless, by comparing the estimated times with previous hypothesis on the temporal divergence of other Asian corydalids (Liu et al ., , , ; Yang et al ., ), the mean nodal ages of these nodes seem more plausible and are considered for the following discussion. Our estimates indicate a Palaeocene origin for the genus Neoneuromus at c .…”

“…This result implies that the Indian‐origin hypothesis cannot be refuted for Neoneuromus or for other Oriental corydalids. However, the ancestral species might not have had to be introduced from Gondwana with the northward drifting of the Indian subcontinent, which was assumed to be the origin of the common ancestor of the Asian Corydalidae (Penny, ), as many Asian endemic corydalid genera are estimated to have diverged during the Early Cretaceous when the Indian subcontinent had not yet collided with Eurasia (Yang et al ., ).…”

Figure 1 from: Mo R-R, Wang Y, Cao J-J, Wang G-Q, Li W-H, Murányi D (2022) Two complete mitochondrial genomes of the subfamily Chloroperlinae (Plecoptera: Chloroperlidae) and their phylogenetic implications. Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 80: 155-168. https://doi.org/10.3897/asp.80.e78173

“…Both species had seven bp overlaps in (ATP6-ATP8) and (ND4-ND4L), "ATGATAA" and "TTAACAT", respectively. This phenomenon was also found in the mitogenome of many insects (Yang et al 2017;Cao et al 2019a). An intergenic spacer sequence was found to be located between tRNA Leu(UUR) and COII in the two species, ranging from 12 bp in Sweltsa sp.…”