Better shelter, prosper future: Integrated phylogenomic and sanger data provides insights into the evolution of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera)

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Presenting Author(s)

Xuankun Li

University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Co-Author(s)

AK

Atsushi Kawakita

Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University
Otsu, Shiga, Japan
EV

Erik Van Nieukerken

Entomological Laboratory, Kyushu University, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences
Nishiku, Fukuoka, Japan
SK

Shigeki Kobayashi

Entomological Laboratory, Kyushu University, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences
Nishiku, Fukuoka, Japan
CD

Camiel Doorenweerd

University of Hawai'i
Honolulu, Hawai'i
CL

Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde

French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Orléans, Alsace, France
DD

Don Davis

Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution
Washington, District of Columbia
IO

Issei Ohshima

Kyoto Prefectural University
Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan
AK

Akito Y. Kawahara

Florida Museum Of Natural History
Gainesville, Florida

Gracillariidae is the most taxonomically diverse cosmopolitan leaf-mining moth family, consisting of nearly 2000 named species in 105 described genera, classified into eight extant subfamilies. The majority of gracillariid species are internal plant feeders as larvae, creating mines and galls in plant tissue. Despite their diversity and ecological adaptations, phylogenetic relationships, especially at subfamily level, remain largely uncertain. We integrated genomic data (83 taxa and 589 loci), with Sanger data (130 taxa and 22 loci), to reconstruct a phylogeny of Gracillariidae. Our results, based on analyses of both data sets combined and analyzed separately, strongly support the monophyly of Gracillariidae and all its subfamilies, and the monophyly of the clade ‘LAMPO’ (subfamilies: Lithocolletinae, Acrocercopinae, Marmarinae, Phyllocnistinae, and Oecophyllembiinae) and relationships of its subclade ‘AMO’ (subfamilies: Acrocercopinae, Marmarinae, and Oecophyllembiinae). Our best hypotheses support a sister group relationship of Ornixolinae to the remainder of the family, and a monophyletic leaf roller lineage (Callicercops Vári + Parornichinae) + Gracillariinae, as sister to the ‘LAMPO’ clade. Based on our results, we establish the new subfamily, Callicercopinae Li, Ohshima et Kawahara, to accommodate the enigmatic genus Callicercops. Our dating analyses indicate a mid-Cretaceous (105.3 Ma) origin of the family, followed by a rapid diversification into the nine subfamilies predating K-Pg extinction. We hypothesize that advanced larval behaviours, such as making keeled or tentiform blotch mines, rolling leaves, and making galls, accelerated the diversification of Gracillariidae by avoiding larval parasitoids.