Phylogenomics of endemic Australian Ulopinae (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha: Cicadellidae).

Ulopinae is a distinctive subfamily of leafhoppers that is widely distributed across the Afrotropical, Palearctic, Indomalayan and Australasian regions. The ulopine fauna of Australia is entirely endemic and includes two tribes of striking appearance, the Ulopini and Cephalelini. Knowledge of these groups is fragmentary and in many instances, no information is available beyond original descriptions. We assess the monophyly, phylogenetic placement and species-level diversity of the Ulopini genus Austrolopa . Phylogenetic analyses based on sequence data from target nuclear loci (18S , 28S , H2A and H3 ) and mitochondrial genomes (15 genes) for 23 membracoid taxa yielded congruent topologies. Our results provide strong evidence for the monophyly of Ulopinae and a clade consisting of Ulopini + Cephalelini. However, a non-monophyletic Cephalelini arises from within a polyphyletic Ulopini. Austrolopa was strongly recovered as monophyletic in all analyses, a result also supported by morphological features. The genus currently includes six species, three of which are described based on morphological and molecular data: Austrolopa botanica , sp. nov. , Austrolopa rotunda , sp. nov. and Austrolopa sublima , sp. nov. A lectotype designation is provided for Austrolopa kingensis Evans, 1937, sp. reval. Our findings illustrate that the Australian Ulopinae is far more diverse than currently circumscribed and several species of Austrolopa are yet to be recognised. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1480285B-8F61-4659-A929-2B1EF3168868.

Dating in the Dark: Elevated Substitution Rates in Cave Cockroaches (Blattodea: Nocticolidae) Have Negative Impacts on Molecular Date Estimates.

Rates of nucleotide substitution vary substantially across the Tree of Life, with potentially confounding effects on phylogenetic and evolutionary analyses. A large acceleration in mitochondrial substitution rate occurs in the cockroach family Nocticolidae, which predominantly inhabit subterranean environments. To evaluate the impacts of this among-lineage rate heterogeneity on estimates of phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary timescales, we analyzed nuclear ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and mitochondrial genomes from nocticolids and other cockroaches. Substitution rates were substantially elevated in nocticolid lineages compared with other cockroaches, especially in mitochondrial protein-coding genes. This disparity in evolutionary rates is likely to have led to different evolutionary relationships being supported by phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial genomes and UCE loci. Furthermore, Bayesian dating analyses using relaxed-clock models inferred much deeper divergence times compared with a flexible local clock. Our phylogenetic analysis of UCEs, which is the first genome-scale study to include all 13 major cockroach families, unites Corydiidae and Nocticolidae and places Anaplectidae as the sister lineage to the rest of Blattoidea. We uncover an extraordinary level of genetic divergence in Nocticolidae, including two highly distinct clades that separated ~115 million years ago despite both containing representatives of the genus Nocticola. The results of our study highlight the potential impacts of high among-lineage rate variation on estimates of phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary timescales.