Phylogenetic relationships of “Tenebrionidae clade”
In the “Tenebrionidae clade”,
the family Lagriidae and
Tenebrionidae are monophyletic, and both of them are sister groups each
other in the present study. The classification of Lagriidae has been
debated over the years, and some scholars argue that Lagriidae should be
classified as a subfamily within Tenebrionidae. However, the beetles
of Lagriidae are leafivorous like
beetles of Chrysomelidae, and morphological characteristics of Lagriidae
adapt much more for free-moving and leaf-feeding than the beetles from
other subfamilies in Tenebrionidae. The
monophyly of
Lagriidae was proposed in the
earlier morphology study based on the characteristics of abdominal
defense glands, female reproductive tract, mouthparts morphology and
structure of the wings in Lagriid and Tenebrionoid (Doyen & Tschinkel,
1982). The monophyly was also proposed in
earlier phylogenetic inference
based on mtgenomes and nuclear genes (Gunter et al. , 2014;
Kergoat et al. , 2014a). The mtgenome-based phylogeny of 36
species in Tenebrionidae suggested the monophyly of Lagriidae and
Tenebrionidae, and their sister relationships based on PCG123 datasets
using BI and ML (Wu et al. , 2021), which is consistent with the
present study. The monophyly of Tenebrionidae was also proposed in some
earlier phylogenetic studies based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes
(Hunt et al ., 2007; Timmermans et al. , 2015; Mckennaet al. , 2019).
The present study suggests the phylogenetic relationships of Adeliinae +
(Lagriinae + Statininae) in the family Lagriidae, and the monophyly of
Lagriinae and Statininae. The monophyly of Lagriinae was proposed in
earlier phylogenetic studies based on the morphology characteristics
(Doyen, 1989), and also based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes (Gunteret al ., 2014; Wu et al ., 2021). The present study supports
the monophyly of the subfamily Statiriinae for the first time. The
Adeliinae is at the base of the family Lagriidae in this study, which is
consistent with the earlier mtgenome-based study (Wu et al .,
2021). The monophyly of Adeliinae in Lagriidae is not yet determined due
to only one species to be included.
In the family Tenebrionidae, the present study supports the monophyly of
the subfamily Pimeliinae, Stenochiinae and Alleculinae, whereas
Tenebrioninae and Diaperinae are recognized as a polyphyly. The
subfamily Pimeliinae was also proposed to be monophyletic in the earlier
studies based on nuclear genes and mitochondrial genes (Gunter et
al. , 2014; Wu et al ., 2021). The present study supports the
monophyly of the subfamilies Stenochiinae and Alleculinae in
Tenebrionidae, which was also proposed in earlier phylogenetic studies
based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes (Kergoat et al. , 2014a;
Wu et al ., 2021). The subfamily Tenebrioninae and Diaperinae in
these molecular-based studies are found to be polyphyletic, which is
need to be elucidated with more species involved.