Testing the systematic status of Homalictus and Rostrohalictus with weakened cross‐vein groups within Halictini (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) using low‐coverage whole‐genome sequencing

Abstract

The halictid genus Lasioglossum, as one of the most species-rich bee groups with persistently contentious subgeneric boundaries, is one of the most challenging bee groups from a systematic standpoint. An enduring question is the relationship of Lasioglossum and Homalictus, whether all halictine bees with weakened distal wing venation comprise one or multiple genera. Here, we analyzed the phylogenetic relationships among the subgroups within Lasioglossum s.l. based on thousands of single-copy orthologs and ultraconserved elements, which were extracted from 23 newly sequenced low-coverage whole genomes alongside a published genome (22 ingroups plus 2 outgroups). Both marker sets provided consistent results across maximum likelihood and coalescent-based species tree approaches. The phylogenetic and topology test results show that the Lasioglossum and Hemihalictus series are reciprocally monophyletic and Homalictus and Rostrohalictus are valid subgenera of Lasioglossum. Consequently, we lower Homalictus to subgenus status within Lasioglossum again, and we also raise Rostrohalictus to subgenus status from its prior synonymy with subgenus Hemihalictus. Lasioglossum przewalskyi is also transferred to the subgenus Hemihalictus. Ultimately, we redefine Lasioglossum to include all halictine bees with weakened distal wing venation.

Phylogenomics reveals the relationships of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera): providing the potential landscape using universal single copy orthologues

“…Entomobryomorpha [30], and Hemiptera [53]; but also in some low-level lineages Halictini [54], Membracoidea [55] and Chrysopidae [29]. In this study, 8 coalescent datasets with higher parsimony information sites yielded 24 phylogenetic trees with high branch supports (Table 2, Additional file 2: Figure S1-S24).…”

“…Benchmarking universal single-copy orthologs (BUSCOs) are a set of conservative benchmarking genes of universal single-copy orthologs identified using OrthoDB [25], which are commonly used for quantitative assessment of genome assembly and annotation completeness based on evolutionarily informed expectations of gene content [26, 27]. The potential of BUSCOs is further explored to downstream phylogenetic inference [26], whose effectiveness with high branch supports is tested and verified not only in diverse high-level lineages, such as insects [50], yeasts [51] and spiders [52], Entomobryomorpha [30], and Hemiptera [53]; but also in some low-level lineages Halictini [54], Membracoidea [55] and Chrysopidae [29]. In this study, 8 coalescent datasets with higher parsimony information sites yielded 24 phylogenetic trees with high branch supports (Table 2, Additional file 2: Figure S1-S24).…”

New Mitogenomes of the Polypedilum Generic Complex (Diptera: Chironomidae): Characterization and Phylogenetic Implications

“…Different topologies between BI and ML trees indicated that the phylogenetic relationships based on mitogenomes among this group were still erratic, i.e., the systematic position of Stictochironomus , and the trees which were inferred by the heterogeneity model (CAT + GTR) were also not well supported. Therefore, we need to await further taxonomic and phylogenomic studies with more taxon sampling and availably molecular markers, such as ultra-conserved elements and single-copy orthologous genes, which have been successfully used in other insect groups [ 47 , 48 , 49 ] to explore the evolutionary history of the Polypedilum generic complex.…”

Phylogenomics resolves a 100-year-old debate regarding the evolutionary history of caddisflies (Insecta: Trichoptera)

“…Phylogenomics has been successfully applied to phylogenetic studies of various arthropod taxa on levels ranging from order to species (Bossert et al, 2019; Bradford et al, 2022; Buenaventura et al, 2021; Johnson et al, 2022; Stephen. et al, 2017; Yu et al, 2022; Zhang et al, 2022). Moreover, it has been employed in population genomics (Winker et al, 2018).…”