Multiple introgression events during the diversification history of the edible Mexican grasshopper genus Sphenarium (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae).

Speciation with gene flow often leads to ambiguous phylogenetic reconstructions, reticulate patterns of relatedness and conflicting nuclear versus mitochondrial (mt) lineages. Here we employed a fragment of the COI mtDNA gene and nuclear genome-wide data (3RAD) to assess the diversification history of Sphenarium, an orthopteran genus of great economic importance in Mexico that is presumed to have experienced hybridisation events in some of its species. We carried out separate phylogenetic analyses to evaluate the existence of mito-nuclear discordance in the species relationships, and also assessed the genomic diversity and population genomic structure and investigated the existence of interspecific introgression and species limits of the taxa involved based on the nuclear dataset. The species delineation analyses discriminated all the currently recognised species, but also supported the existence of four undescribed species. The mt and nuclear topologies had four discordant species relationships that can be explained by mt introgression, where the mt haplotypes of S. purpurascens appear to have replaced those of S. purpurascens A and B, S. variabile and S. zapotecum. Moreover, our analyses supported the existence of nuclear introgression events between four species pairs that are distributed in the Sierra Madre del Sur province in southeast Mexico, with three of them occurring in the Tehuantepec Isthmus region. Our study highlights the relevance of genomic data to address the relative importance of allopatric isolation versus gene flow in speciation.

Ultraconserved elements-based systematics reveals evolutionary patterns of host-plant family shifts and phytophagy within the predominantly parasitoid braconid wasp subfamily Doryctinae.

Phytophagy has promoted species diversification in many insect groups, including Hymenoptera, one of the most diverse animal orders on Earth. In the predominantly parasitoid family Braconidae, an association with insect-induced, plant galls in angiosperms have been reported in three subfamilies, but in particular in the Doryctinae, where it has been recorded to occur in species of ten genera. Allorhogas Gahan is the most species-rich of these genera, with its species having different phytophagous strategies. Here we conducted a comprehensive phylogenomic study for the doryctine gall-associated genera, with an emphasis on Allorhogas, using ultraconserved elements (UCEs). Based on this estimate of phylogeny we: (1) evaluated their taxonomic composition, (2) estimated the timing of origin of the gall-associated clade and divergence of its main subclades, and (3) performed ancestral state reconstruction analyses for life history traits related to their host-plant association. Our phylogenetic hypothesis confirmed Allorhogas as polyphyletic, with most of its members being nested in a main clade composed of various subclades, each comprising species with a particular host-plant family and herbivorous feeding habit. The origin of gall-association was estimated to have occurred during the late Oligocene to early Miocene, with a subsequent diversification of subclades during the middle to late Miocene and Pliocene. Overlap in divergence timing appears to occur between some taxa and their host-associated plant lineages. Evolution of the feeding strategies in the group shows "inquilinism-feeding" as the likely ancestral state, with gall-formation in different plant organs and seed predation having independently evolved on multiple occasions.

Phylogenomics of braconid wasps (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) sheds light on classification and the evolution of parasitoid life history traits.

The parasitoid lifestyle is largely regarded as a key innovation that contributed to the evolutionary success and extreme species richness of the order Hymenoptera. Understanding the phylogenetic history of hyperdiverse parasitoid groups is a fundamental step in elucidating the evolution of biological traits linked to parasitoidism. We used a genomic-scale dataset based on ultra-conserved elements and the most comprehensive taxon sampling to date to estimate the evolutionary relationships of Braconidae, the second largest family of Hymenoptera. Based on our results, we propose Braconidae to comprise 41 extant subfamilies, confirmed a number of subfamilial placements and proposed subfamily-level taxonomic changes, notably the restoration of Trachypetinae stat. rev. and Masoninae stat. rev. as subfamilies of Braconidae, confirmation that Apozyx penyai Mason belongs in Braconidae placed in the subfamily Apozyginae and the recognition of Ichneutinae sensu stricto and Proteropinae as non-cyclostome subfamilies robustly supported in a phylogenetic context. The correlation between koinobiosis with endoparasitoidism and idiobiosis with ectoparasitoidism, long thought to be an important aspect in parasitoid life history, was formally tested and confirmed in a phylogenetic framework. Using ancestral reconstruction methods based on both parsimony and maximum likelihood, we suggest that the ancestor of the braconoid complex was a koinobiont endoparasitoid, as was that of the cyclostome sensu lato clade. Our results also provide strong evidence for one transition from endo- to ectoparasitoidism and three reversals back to endoparasitoidism within the cyclostome sensu stricto lineage. Transitions of koino- and idiobiosis were identical to those inferred for endo- versus ectoparasitoidism, except with one additional reversal back to koinobiosis in the small subfamily Rhysipolinae.

Observed Ecological Communities Are Formed by Species Combinations That Are among the Most Likely to Persist under Changing Environments.

AbstractDespite the rich biodiversity found in nature, it is unclear to what extent some combinations of interacting species, while conceivable in a given place and time, may never be realized. Yet solving this problem is important for understanding the role of randomness and predictability in the assembly of ecological communities. Here we show that the specific combinations of interacting species that emerge from the ecological dynamics within regional species pools are not all equally likely to be seen; rather, they are among the most likely to persist under changing environments. First, we use niche-based competition matrices and Lotka-Volterra models to demonstrate that realized combinations of interacting species are more likely to persist under random parameter perturbations than the majority of potential combinations with the same number of species that could have been formed from the regional pool. We then corroborate our theoretical results using a 10-year observational study, recording 88 plant-herbivore communities across three different forest successional stages. By inferring and validating plant-mediated communities of competing herbivore species, we find that observed combinations of herbivores have an expected probability of species persistence higher than half of all potential combinations. Our findings open up the opportunity to establish a formal probabilistic and predictive understanding of the composition of ecological communities.

Phylogenomics of the Mesoamerican alligator-lizard genera Abronia and Mesaspis (Anguidae: Gerrhonotinae) reveals multiple independent clades of arboreal and terrestrial species.

Abronia and Mesaspis are two of the five anguid lizard genera in the subfamily Gerrhonotinae. Their members are restricted to Mesoamerica, and most have allopatric distributions. Species of Abronia are primarily arboreal and occur in cloud and seasonally dry pine-oak forests, whereas those of Mesaspis are terrestrial and inhabit mesic microhabitats of montane forests. Recent molecular studies suggest that although these genera together form a monophyletic group, neither genus is monophyletic. Here we performed a phylogenetic study of Abronia and Mesaspis based on the most comprehensive taxonomic sampling of these genera to date and double digest restriction site-associated (ddRADseq) data. Our reconstructed phylogeny differed considerably from all previously published topologies, consistently recovering multiple independent clades of arboreal and terrestrial species and Abronia and Mesaspis as non-monophyletic. Geography, rather than current taxonomy, provides the best explanation of their phylogenetic relationships. Our analyses consistently recovered two main clades, distributed on the highlands of Middle America east and west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, respectively, and each composed of subclades of Abronia and Mesaspis. In the former main clade, members of the subgenus Auriculabronia formed the sister taxon to the Mesaspis moreletii complex, whereas the main clade west of the Isthmus was composed of two clades with a subclade of Abronia and another of Mesaspis each (one clade on the Atlantic versant of the main mountain ranges of eastern Mexico and another one on the Sierra Madre del Sur exclusive of its Atlantic versant) and a third clade with species of the subgenera Abronia and Scopaeabronia. We discuss the taxonomic implications of our results for the classification of the examined taxa and list the morphological characters that diagnose the recovered clades. This study highlights the utility of ddRADseq data to reconstruct the evolutionary history of supraspecific vertebrate taxa.

3RAD-based systematics of the transitional Nearctic-Neotropical lubber grasshopper genus Taeniopoda (Orthoptera: Romaleidae).

The genus Taeniopoda Stål (Romaleidae) is a group of Nearctic-Neotropical grasshoppers whose systematics has been largely neglected. A recent phylogenetic study based on morphology and mitochondrial and nuclear markers failed to resolve the species boundaries in this genus and showed a lack of reciprocal exclusivity between T. eques (Burmeister) and T. tamaulipensis Rehn. Here we assessed the species limits and phylogenetic relationships in Taeniopoda based on 3RAD data, and evaluated the presence of gene flow and niche overlap between the above two species using clustering and ecological niche modelling (ENM) analyses to determine their taxonomic status. We performed de novo assembly of different 3RAD data sets with distinct parameters settings to explore whether they impact the recovered relationships. Ten species were consistently delimited, with T. picticornis and T. stali regarded as conspecific and the populations of T. auricornis from Guatemala representing a separate species. We maintained the specific status of T. eques and T. tamaulipensis, though our results suggest that they represent a ring species since their genetic composition appear to change gradually following a "loop form" along their geographical distribution. The phylogenomic analyses confirmed the paraphyly of Taeniopoda with respect to Romalea and recovered three major clades. Similar to previous studies, the relationships of our examined matrices were highly congruent despite their different levels of missing data. However, the similarity threshold and minimum number of samples that must share a locus for it to be retained impact the amount of loci and missing data of the matrices. This study demonstrates the utility of 3RAD to detect gene flow and to resolve species limits and phylogenetic relationships among closely related taxa.

High extinction rates and non-adaptive radiation explains patterns of low diversity and extreme morphological disparity in North American blister beetles (Coleoptera, Meloidae).

Untangling the relationship between morphological evolution and lineage diversification is key to explain global patterns of phenotypic disparity across the Tree of Life. Few studies have examined the relationship between high morphological disparity and extinction. In this study, we infer phylogenetic relationships and lineage divergence times within Eupomphini (Meloidae), a tribe of blister beetles endemic to the arid zone of North America, which exhibits a puzzling pattern of very low species richness but wild variation in morphological diversity across extant taxa. Using Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference, we estimate diversification and phenotypic evolutionary rates and infer the time and magnitude of extinction rate shifts and mass extinction events. Our results suggest that Eupomphini underwent an event of ancient radiation coupled with rapid morphological change, possibly linked to the loss of the evolutionary constraint in the elytral shape. A high extinction background associated to the Miocene-Pliocene transition decimated the diversity within each major clade, resulting in the species-poor genera observed today. Our study supports a connection between high extinction rates and patterns of decoupled phenotypic evolution and lineage diversification, and the possibility of a radiation in the absence of ecological release.

Restriction-site associated DNA markers provide new insights into the evolutionary history of the bark beetle genus Dendroctonus.

The bark beetle genus Dendroctonus contains some of the most economically important pests of conifers worldwide. Despite many attempts, there is no agreement today on the phylogenetic relationships within the genus, which limits our understanding of its evolutionary history. Here, using restriction-site associated DNA (RAD) markers from 70 specimens representing 17 species (85% of the known diversity) we inferred the phylogeny of the genus, its time of origin and biogeographic history, as well as the evolution of key ecological traits (host plants, larval behavior and adults' attack strategies). For all combinations of tested parameters (from 6444 to 23,570 RAD tags analyzed), the same, fully resolved topology was inferred. Our analyses suggest that the most recent common ancestor (mrca) of all extant Dendroctonus species was widely distributed across eastern Palearctic and western Nearctic during the early Miocene, from where species dispersed to other Holarctic regions. A first main inter-continental vicariance event occurred during early Miocene isolating the ancestors of D. armandi in the Palearctic, which was followed by the radiation of the main Dendroctonus lineages in North America. During the Late Miocene, the ancestor of the 'rufipennis' species group colonized north-east Palearctic regions from western North America, which was followed by a second main inter-continental vicariance event isolating Pleistocene populations in Asia (D. micans) and western North America (D. murrayanae and D. punctatus). The present study supports previous hypotheses explaining intercontinental range disjunctions across the Northern Hemisphere by the fragmentation of a continuous distribution due to climatic cooling, host range fragmentation and geological changes during the late Cenozoic. The reconstruction of ancestral ecological traits indicates that the mrca bored individual galleries and mass attacked the boles of pines. The gregarious feeding behavior of the larvae as well as the individual attack of the base of trees have apparently independently evolved twice in North America (in the 'rufipennis' and the 'valens' species groups), which suggests a higher adaptive potential than previously thought and may be of interest for plant protection and biodiversity conservation in a rapidly changing world.

Ontogenic synchronization of Bephratelloides cubensis, Annona macroprophyllata seeds and acetogenins from Annonaceae.

The seeds of Annona macroprophyllata Donn. Sm. contain idioblasts with toxic acetogenins, including laherradurin and rolliniastatin-2, in relatively high proportions. Both metabolites are cataloged as potent insecticides for several species, even so, the wasp Bephratelloides cubensis Ashmead fulfills almost its entire life cycle inside the seeds of this and other annonaceous species, to such a degree, that they constitute a strong selection pressure. In order to document the chemical relationship between the two species, it is reported for the first time in this paper the presence of idioblasts and acetogenins during the ontogenic development of the seeds of A. macroprophyllata, and contrasted with the development of B. cubensis. The results indicate that idioblasts with laherradurin and rolliniastatin-2 acetogenins are formed in the middle stages of the endospermic development, also that both acetogenins are biosynthesized simultaneously, and that their proportion is dependent on the degree of development. The acetogenins are present in high amounts that suppose a sufficient toxic barrier and, in this case, laherradurin is the most abundant (> 1000 µg g dry weight-1). The wasp B. cubensis only emerges from the seeds to copulate and returns for oviposition; its larval phase coincides with the appearance of acetogenins, so it feeds on the acetogenic endosperm. The absence of acetogenins in the tissues and excreta of the insect supposes a metabolization of the molecules, which would explain the tolerance to its toxicity.

Geographic isolation drives divergence of uncorrelated genetic and song variation in the Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus frantzii; Aves: Turdidae).

Montane barriers influence the evolutionary history of lineages by promoting isolation of populations. The effects of these historical processes are evident in patterns of differentiation among extant populations, which are often expressed as genetic and behavioral variation between populations. We investigated the effects of geographic barriers on the evolutionary history of a Mesoamerican bird by studying patterns of genetic and vocal variation in the Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush (Turdidae: Catharus frantzii), a non-migratory oscine bird that inhabits montane forests from central Mexico to Panama. We reconstructed the phylogeographic history and estimated divergence times between populations using Bayesian and maximum likelihood methods. We found strong support for the existence of four mitochondrial lineages of C. frantzii corresponding to isolated mountain ranges: Sierra Madre Oriental; Sierra Madre del Sur; the highlands of Chiapas, Guatemala, and El Salvador; and the Talamanca Cordillera. Vocal features in C. frantzii were highly variable among the four observed clades, but vocal variation and genetic variation were uncorrelated. Song variation in C. frantzii suggests that sexual selection and cultural drift could be important factors driving song differentiation in C. frantzii.

Montane and coastal species diversification in the economically important Mexican grasshopper genus Sphenarium (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae).

The genus Sphenarium (Pyrgomorphidae) is a small group of grasshoppers endemic to México and Guatemala that are economically and culturally important both as a food source and as agricultural pests. However, its taxonomy has been largely neglected mainly due to its conserved interspecific external morphology and the considerable intraspecific variation in colour pattern of some taxa. Here we examined morphological as well as mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data to assess the species boundaries and evolutionary history in Sphenarium. Our morphological identification and DNA sequence-based species delimitation, carried out with three different approaches (DNA barcoding, general mixed Yule-coalescent model, Bayesian species delimitation), all recovered a higher number of putative species of Sphenarium than previously recognised. We unambiguously delimit seven species, and between five and ten additional species depending on the data/method analysed. Phylogenetic relationships within the genus strongly support two main clades, one exclusively montane, the other coastal. Divergence time estimates suggest late Miocene to Pliocene ages for the origin and most of the early diversification events in the genus, which were probably influenced by the formation of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. A series of Pleistocene events could have led to the current species diversification in both montane and coastal regions. This study not only reveals an overlooked species richness for the most popular edible insect in Mexico, but also highlights the influence of the dynamic geological and climatic history of the region in shaping its current diversity.

Shelter-building behavior and natural history of two pyralid caterpillars feeding on Piper stipulaceum.

Shelter-building behavior by caterpillars provides a mechanism of defense against predators, microenvironment enhancement, and in some cases nutritional benefits. This study provides a detailed description of the life cycle and shelter-building process of caterpillars, and identifies constraints and factors influencing this adaptive behavior in Lepidomys n. sp. near proclea Druce (Pyralidae: Chrysauginae), a tropical dry forest pyralid. Five macroscopic larval instars were detected during the life cycle, and activities performed during shelter-building were categorized and timed. Caterpillar predators were identified, and 20% of all collected larvae died due to attack by parasitoid wasps. Shelter-building behavior was found to be constrained by the ontogenetic stage of caterpillars and influenced by leaf size of the host plant, Piper stipulaceum Opiz (Piperales: Piperaceae) . A similar pattern of shelter-building behavior exhibited by Tosale n. sp. near cuprealis larvae that coexisted in the same host plant is also described. Larvae of the second species were significantly less abundant than those of Lepidomys and hatched one month later in the rainy season, which could indicate some competitive interactions between these two pyralid species.

Phylogenetic affinities of Monarea Szépligeti, 1904 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Doryctinae, with description of a new species from Mexico.

The genus Monarea Szépligeti is recorded from Mexico for the first time. A new species, Monarea fridae sp. nov., is described and illustrated from the states of Morelos, Puebla and Jalisco, Mexico. The phylogenetic placement of the genus is investigated based on nuclear (28S) and mitochondrial (COI) DNA sequence data. Based on the relationships recovered, Monarea is transferred to the tribe Holcobraconini, which is also supported by features of the internal ovipositor structure and the venom glands and reservoir. A key to the four currently recognised species of Monarea is provided.

Mitogenome architecture supports the non-monophyly of the cosmopolitan parasitoid wasp subfamily Doryctinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) recovered by nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenomics.

Mitochondrial DNA gene organisation is an important source of phylogenetic information for various metazoan taxa at different evolutionary timescales, though this has not been broadly tested for all insect groups nor within a phylogenetic context. The cosmopolitan subfamily Doryctinae is a highly diverse group of braconid wasps mainly represented by ectoparasitoids of xylophagous beetle larvae. Previous molecular studies based on Sanger and genome-wide (ultraconserved elements, UCE; and mitochondrial genomes) sequence data have recovered a non-monophyletic Doryctinae, though the relationships involved have always been weakly supported. We characterised doryctine mitogenomes and conducted separate phylogenetic analyses based on mitogenome and UCE sequence data of ~100 representative doryctine genera to assess the monophyly and higher-level classification of the subfamily. We identified rearrangements of mitochondrial transfer RNAs (tRNAs) that support a non-monophyletic Doryctinae consisting of two separate non-related clades with strong geographic structure ('New World' and 'Old World' clades). This geographic structure was also consistently supported by the phylogenetic analyses preformed with mitogenome and UCE sequence data. These results highlight the utility of the mitogenome gene rearrangements as a potential source of phylogenetic information at different evolutionary timescales.

Broad polyphyly and historical biogeography of the neotropical wasp genus Notiospathius (Braconidae: Doryctinae).

Morphological convergence is a frequently observed pattern that occurs in species with similar environments, trophic niches, and/or life history strategies. In particular, adaptive morphological convergence is common in small, highly diverse invertebrate taxa sharing similar life history strategies such as parasitoidism. The genus Notiospathius is a braconid parasitoid wasp group with a vast, undetermined number of species distributed throughout the Neotropics. Members of this genus possess a considerably elongated, petiolate first metasomal tergite. This structure, however, also occurs in species of other doryctine genera, both closely and distantly related, probably due to adaptation for attacking wood and bark boring coleopteran larvae. Here we investigated the phylogenetic relationships among 117 species assigned to Notiospathius, including species of its closely related genera Masonius and Tarasco, as well as members of a number of other doryctine genera in order to test its monophyly. Separate and concatenated Bayesian partitioned analyses were carried out using two mitochondrial and three nuclear gene markers. The influence of each gene on the overall topology was verified using a cross-validation analysis for each marker with a "leave-one-out" approach. Moreover, the historical biogeography of Notiospathius was assessed calculating divergence time estimates of clades with BEAST and performing ancestral area reconstruction analyses both with RASP (Bayesian and S-DIVA) and Lagrange (DEC). All analyses recovered a polyphyletic Notiospathius consisting of three separate clades that were more related to other doryctine genera than to each other. The relationships reconstructed could not be used to confidently establish the limits of Notiospathius with respect to its closely related genera Tarasco and Masonius, and thus the generic status of the latter two taxa is maintained. Our divergence time estimates and ancestral area reconstructions indicate that the most recent common ancestor of Notiospathius sensu stricto originated in the Caribbean subregion during the Oligocene-Miocene boundary, and subsequently diversified during the mid- to late Miocene, radiating throughout the Neotropics.

The genus Hecabolus Curtis 1834 (Braconidae: Doryctinae) in South America, with description of six new species.

Six new species of the doryctinae wasp genus Hecabolus Curtis 1834 (Braconidae) are described from Brazil and Venezuela: H. assis sp. nov., H. julianoi sp. nov., H. robustus sp. nov., H. seniaridus sp. nov., H. shimborii sp. nov., and H. sulmatogrossensis sp. nov. A key to the nine described species of Hecabolus is provided.

Species identification in the taxonomically neglected, highly diverse, neotropical parasitoid wasp genus Notiospathius (Braconidae: Doryctinae) based on an integrative molecular and morphological approach.

Various DNA sequence-based methods for species delineation have recently been developed to assess the species-richness of highly diverse, neglected invertebrate taxa. These methods, however, need to be tested under a variety of conditions, including the use of different markers and parameters. Here, we explored the species diversity of a species-rich group of braconid parasitoid wasps, the Neotropical genus Notiospathius, including 233 specimens from 10 different countries. We examined sequences of two mitochondrial (mt) (COI, cyt b) and one nuclear (wg) gene fragments. We analysed them separately as well as concatenating the mt data with the general mixed Yule-coalescent (GMYC) model for species delineation using different tree-building methods and parameters for reconstructing ultrametric trees. We evaluated the performance of GMYC analyses by comparing their species delineations with our morphospecies identifications. Reconstructing ultrametric trees with a relaxed lognormal clock rate using the program BEAST gave the most congruent results with morphology for the two mt markers. A tree obtained with wg using the programs MrBayes+Pathd8 had the fewest cases of incongruence with morphology, though the performance of this nuclear marker was considerably lower than that of COI and cyt b. Species delimitation using the coalescent prior to obtain ultrametric trees was morphologically more congruent with COI, whereas the Yule prior was more congruent with cyt b. The analyses concatenating the mt datasets failed to recover some species supported both by morphology and the separate analyses of the mt markers. The highest morphological congruence was obtained with the GMYC analysis on an ultrametric tree reconstructed with cyt b using the relaxed lognormal clock rate and the Yule prior, thus supporting the importance of using alternative markers when the information of the barcoding locus (COI) is not concordant with morphological evidence. Seventy-one species were delimited based on the congruence found among COI, cyt b and morphology. Both mt markers also revealed the existence of seven potential cryptic species. This high species richness from a scattered geographical sampling indicates that there is a remarkable number of Notiospathius species that remains undiscovered.

Genome and cuticular hydrocarbon-based species delimitation shed light on potential drivers of speciation in a Neotropical ant species complex.

Geographic separation that leads to the evolution of reproductive isolation between populations generally is considered the most common form of speciation. However, speciation may also occur in the absence of geographic barriers due to phenotypic and genotypic factors such as chemical cue divergence, mating signal divergence, and mitonuclear conflict. Here, we performed an integrative study based on two genome-wide techniques (3RAD and ultraconserved elements) coupled with cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) and mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence data, to assess the species limits within the Ectatomma ruidum species complex, a widespread and conspicuous group of Neotropical ants for which heteroplasmy (i.e., presence of multiple mtDNA variants in an individual) has been recently discovered in some populations from southeast Mexico. Our analyses indicate the existence of at least five distinct species in this complex: two widely distributed across the Neotropics, and three that are restricted to southeast Mexico and that apparently have high levels of heteroplasmy. We found that species boundaries in the complex did not coincide with geographic barriers. We therefore consider possible roles of alternative drivers that may have promoted the observed patterns of speciation, including mitonuclear incompatibility, CHC differentiation, and colony structure. Our study highlights the importance of simultaneously assessing different sources of evidence to disentangle the species limits of taxa with complicated evolutionary histories.

Mitochondrial phylogenomics and mitogenome organization in the parasitoid wasp family Braconidae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea).

BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial (mt) nucleotide sequence data has been by far the most common tool employed to investigate evolutionary relationships. While often considered to be more useful for shallow evolutionary scales, mt genomes have been increasingly shown also to contain valuable phylogenetic information about deep relationships. Further, mt genome organization provides another important source of phylogenetic information and gene reorganizations which are known to be relatively frequent within the insect order Hymenoptera. Here we used a dense taxon sampling comprising 148 mt genomes (132 newly generated) collectively representing members of most of the currently recognised subfamilies of the parasitoid wasp family Braconidae, which is one of the largest radiations of hymenopterans. We employed this data to investigate the evolutionary relationships within the family and to assess the phylogenetic informativeness of previously known and newly discovered mt gene rearrangements. RESULTS: Most subfamilial relationships and their composition obtained were similar to those recovered in a previous phylogenomic study, such as the restoration of Trachypetinae and the recognition of Apozyginae and Proteropinae as valid braconid subfamilies. We confirmed and detected phylogenetic signal in previously known as well as novel mt gene rearrangements, including mt rearrangements within the cyclostome subfamilies Doryctinae and Rogadinae. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that both the mt genome DNA sequence data and gene organization contain valuable phylogenetic signal to elucidate the evolution within Braconidae at different taxonomic levels. This study serves as a basis for further investigation of mt gene rearrangements at different taxonomic scales within the family.

Revision of Palaearctic Idiotypa (Hymenoptera, Diapriidae, Diapriinae, Spilomicrini).

A revision of the Palaearctic species of the genus Idiotypa Förster is provided. The genus Eunuchopria Szabó, 1961 is a junior synonym of Idiotypa Förster, 1856 syn. n. and the new combination Idiotypa nitens (Szabó, 1961) comb. n., is established. Dublicate original spellings I. marii and I. mariae are resolved by first reviser action; I. mariae is now the correct original spelling. Lectotypes are designated for Idiotypa mariae and I. maritima. New synonymy is proposed: I. maritima (Haliday, 1833) = I. rufiventris (Thomson, 1858) syn. n.; = I. nigriceps Kieffer, 1909 syn. n.; = I. nigriceps Kieffer, 1911 syn. n. The three valid species I. mariae Gregor, 1939, I. maritima (Haliday, 1833) and I. nitens (Szabó, 1961) are redescribed, illustrated and keyed.