Abstract With over 80 000 extant species, brachycerans are among the most diverse insect lineages, exhibiting a wide range of feeding strategies and ecological adaptations. Originating in the Early Jurassic, this megadiverse clade then underwent rapid speciation and morphological diversification during the Mesozoic, profoundly shaping its modern diversity. However, the early evolutionary history of many lineages remains poorly known due to a sparse fossil record. Here, we describe a new brachyceran family, †Chikuniidae Feng, Yang, Engel, Ren et Wang fam. nov ., from mid‐Cretaceous Kachin amber. Phylogenetic analyses place it as the earliest‐diverging lineage of the Asiloidea + Eremoneura clade within Muscomorpha, providing a critical fossil calibration for estimating the crown age of Brachycera and refining the early diversification scenario. Exceptional preservation allows functional reconstruction of the mouthparts, corroborating specialized haematophagy in both sexes. This discovery reveals previously unknown ecological diversity among Mesozoic brachyceran flies and provides direct fossil evidence for multiple independent origins of haematophagy within Brachycera. Furthermore, evolutionary analyses of haematophagous brachycerans and their potential hosts indicate that Mesozoic blood‐feeding lineages likely exploited different host resources from their modern descendants, suggesting a major host transition during the replacement of Mesozoic and modern ecosystems.
Abstract Coccoidea (scale insects) are a hyperdiverse superfamily within Sternorrhyncha, inclusive of many of the world's most economically destructive agricultural pests. Despite their global significance, a robust phylogenetic framework for this group has yet to be established. This study provides the most comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of scale insects to date, incorporating 113 samples from 105 species, spanning 29 of 35 extant families. By utilizing Universal Single‐Copy Orthologs (USCOs), we recovered the phylogenetic relationships within Coccoidea to the highest resolution so far to date, with high statistical support. Our results, consistent across all the reconstruction methods employed, provide strong evidence for Coccoidea being monophyletic. In agreement with earlier phylogenetic analyses, the neococcoids were confirmed to be a monophyletic group and the archaeococcoids a paraphyletic one; 7 of the 11 included archaeococcoid families (Xylococcidae, Qinococcidae, Margarodidae, Kuwaniidae, Marchalinidae, Coelostomidiidae and Monophlebidae) comprising the sister group to (Steingeliidae + (Putoidae + neococcoid lineages)). Matsucoccidae were recovered as the sister group to all others within the superfamily. This study also clarifies the placement of some families, particularly ones that are species‐poor and have remained enigmatic.
Abstract Plastome‐based classifications recognize 12 subfamilies and 22 tribes within Lamiaceae. However, the deep phylogenetic relationships and tribal limits of Pogostemoneae sensu lato remain uncertain because nuclear phylogenomic investigations and assessments of cytonuclear discordance remain limited. We sampled all genera assigned to Pogostemoneae s.lat. and representatives of all recognized tribes of Lamiaceae. Transcriptome‐based nuclear datasets and plastid datasets recover Lamioideae as monophyletic but Pogostemoneae s.lat. as non‐monophyletic. Nuclear concatenation and coalescent analyses resolve three lineages: Pogostemoneae s.str. (six genera), Colebrookea and the Achyrospermum group, including Holocheila . We recircumscribe Pogostemoneae and describe Achyrospermeae and Colebrookeae as new tribes. At the tribal level, Pogostemoneae s.str. is distinguished by variable inflorescences and usually smooth, glossy nutlets; Achyrospermeae by frequent stellate tomentum, mostly dense spiciform inflorescences and usually dull, roughened or reticulate nutlets; and Colebrookeae by densely lanate‐tomentose dioecious shrubs, strongly dimorphic flowers and accrescent fruiting calyces with elongate plumose teeth. Plastid trees usually recover the pogostemonoids as monophyletic, with conflict concentrated at the deepest backbone nodes. Conflict and gene flow analyses indicate pervasive incomplete lineage sorting, with localized introgression at specific nodes. Time‐calibrated analyses date crown Lamioideae to the mid‐Eocene (about 44 Ma), with major divergences near the Eocene–Oligocene transition. Speciation and net diversification rates increased towards the present across Lamioideae, without lineage‐specific accelerations. These results provide a robust basis for revising the tribal classification in Lamioideae.
Abstract The Euophryini is one of the largest tribes of jumping spiders (Salticidae), with diverse morphology, ecology and behaviour, and is an important focus of systematic and evolutionary studies of jumping spiders. Notably, it is the only salticid tribe that has diversified nearly equally across both the Old and New Worlds, making its historical biogeography particularly intriguing. However, understanding its biogeography has been challenging without the application of phylogeny‐based biogeographical analytical approaches. In this study, we obtained ultraconserved elements (UCEs) from 255 euophryine and 45 outgroup taxa. The UCE phylogenomics provided a reliable phylogenetic framework that strongly supports the monophyly of the tribe and the division of Euophryini into two major clades (Clades A and B). Clade A consists exclusively of Old World euophryines, while Clade B includes a radiation in the New World along with several Old World lineages. Temporal divergence analyses, utilizing known jumping spider fossils, suggest that most divergences of euophryines likely occurred post‐Eocene. Biogeographical analyses indicate that Euophryini most likely originated in the Palaearctic and Indomalayan regions, followed by multiple dispersals between the Indomalayan and Australasian regions, the Palaearctic and Indomalayan regions, the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, and the Nearctic and Neotropical regions during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. In contrast to the previous view that early continental transitions between the Old and New World for Euophryini were facilitated by the Antarctic land bridge, our study supports the Neotropical radiation having dispersed from the Palaearctic through the Nearctic, rather than from the Australasian region via Antarctica. Findings from this study significantly enhance our understanding of the origin, and temporal and spatial divergence of euophryine jumping spiders.
Understanding macroevolution requires integrating morphological and molecular data from fossil and extant taxa to reconstruct phylogenies, trait evolution and biogeographic history. However, the macroevolutionary process since its deep-time origin via a total-evidence approach has been investigated only in a limited number of groups. Here we present the first total-evidence phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses of Dilaridae, a key transitional group of Neuroptera, integrating high-resolution 3D morphological reconstructions of Cretaceous stem-group taxa. We describe a new genus and four new species from the Kachin amber, that is, †Palaeonallachius fangyuani gen. et sp. nov., †Coronidilar jiaxiaoae sp. nov., †Cretodilar zhiqiae sp. nov. and †Cretodilar galaxias sp. nov., which provide valuable morphological data for phylogenetic inference. Comparative analyses using alternative sampling strategies (extant-only or total-evidence) demonstrate the advantages of integrating fossil data in phylogenetic inference, divergence-time estimation and ancestral range reconstruction. Our results support a Gondwanan origin of Dilaridae associated with the West Burma Block, followed by dispersal into Laurasia via northward-drifting Gondwanan landmasses and possible trans-Antarctic dispersal since the Jurassic. The absence of extant dilarids in Australasia is likely due to extinction. These findings highlight the importance of fossil integration in resolving deep-time evolution and the role of Gondwanan dynamics in shaping insect biogeography.
