Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths

  • Akito Y. Kawahara
    McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611;
  • David Plotkin
    McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611;
  • Marianne Espeland
    McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611;
  • Karen Meusemann
    Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Institute for Biology I (Zoology), University of Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany;
  • Emmanuel F. A. Toussaint
    McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611;
  • Alexander Donath
    Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;
  • France Gimnich
    Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;
  • Paul B. Frandsen
    Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602;
  • Andreas Zwick
    Australian National Insect Collection, National Research Collections Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia;
  • Mario dos Reis
    School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom;
  • Jesse R. Barber
    Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725;
  • Ralph S. Peters
    Arthropoda Department, Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;
  • Shanlin Liu
    China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, 518083 Guangdong, China;
  • Xin Zhou
    Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, 100193 Beijing, China;
  • Christoph Mayer
    Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;
  • Lars Podsiadlowski
    Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;
  • Caroline Storer
    McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611;
  • Jayne E. Yack
    Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1S 5B6;
  • Bernhard Misof
    Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;
  • Jesse W. Breinholt
    McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611;

抄録

<jats:p>Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are one of the major superradiations of insects, comprising nearly 160,000 described extant species. As herbivores, pollinators, and prey, Lepidoptera play a fundamental role in almost every terrestrial ecosystem. Lepidoptera are also indicators of environmental change and serve as models for research on mimicry and genetics. They have been central to the development of coevolutionary hypotheses, such as butterflies with flowering plants and moths’ evolutionary arms race with echolocating bats. However, these hypotheses have not been rigorously tested, because a robust lepidopteran phylogeny and timing of evolutionary novelties are lacking. To address these issues, we inferred a comprehensive phylogeny of Lepidoptera, using the largest dataset assembled for the order (2,098 orthologous protein-coding genes from transcriptomes of 186 species, representing nearly all superfamilies), and dated it with carefully evaluated synapomorphy-based fossils. The oldest members of the Lepidoptera crown group appeared in the Late Carboniferous (∼300 Ma) and fed on nonvascular land plants. Lepidoptera evolved the tube-like proboscis in the Middle Triassic (∼241 Ma), which allowed them to acquire nectar from flowering plants. This morphological innovation, along with other traits, likely promoted the extraordinary diversification of superfamily-level lepidopteran crown groups. The ancestor of butterflies was likely nocturnal, and our results indicate that butterflies became day-flying in the Late Cretaceous (∼98 Ma). Moth hearing organs arose multiple times before the evolutionary arms race between moths and bats, perhaps initially detecting a wide range of sound frequencies before being co-opted to specifically detect bat sonar. Our study provides an essential framework for future comparative studies on butterfly and moth evolution.</jats:p>

収録刊行物

被引用文献 (7)*注記

もっと見る

詳細情報 詳細情報について

問題の指摘

ページトップへ