Anchored phylogenomics illuminates the skipper butterfly tree of life.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Butterflies (Papilionoidea) are perhaps the most charismatic insect lineage, yet phylogenetic relationships among them remain incompletely studied and controversial. This is especially true for skippers (Hesperiidae), one of the most species-rich and poorly studied butterfly families.

Methods

To infer a robust phylogenomic hypothesis for Hesperiidae, we sequenced nearly 400 loci using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment and sampled all tribes and more than 120 genera of skippers. Molecular datasets were analyzed using maximum-likelihood, parsimony and coalescent multi-species phylogenetic methods.

Results

All analyses converged on a novel, robust phylogenetic hypothesis for skippers. Different optimality criteria and methodologies recovered almost identical phylogen

SUBMITTER: Toussaint EFA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6011192 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature