Polyphaga

Abstract: Beetles (Coleoptera) are the most diverse and species-rich group of insects, and a robust, time-calibrated phylogeny is fundamental to understanding macroevolutionary processes that underlie their diversity. Here we infer the phylogeny and divergence times of all major lineages of Coleoptera by analyzing 95 protein-coding genes in 373 beetle species, including ~67% of the currently recognized families. The subordinal relationships are strongly supported as Polyphaga (Adephaga (Archostemata, Myxophaga)). The series and superfamilies of Polyphaga are mostly monophyletic. The species-poor Nosodendridae is robustly recovered in a novel position sister to Staphyliniformia, Bostrichiformia, and Cucujiformia. Our divergence time analyses suggest that the crown group of extant beetles occurred ~297 million years ago (Mya) and that ~64% of families originated in the Cretaceous. Most of the herbivorous families experienced a significant increase in diversification rate during the Cretaceous, thus suggesting that the rise of angiosperms in the Cretaceous may have been an 'evolutionary impetus' driving the hyperdiversity of herbivorous beetles.

Abstract: A survey is made of the major features of the venation, articulation, and folding in the hind wings of Coleoptera. The documentation is based upon examination of 108 Coleoptera families and 200 specimens, and shown in 101 published figures. Wing veins and articular sclerites are homologized with elements of the neopteran wing groundplan, resulting in wing vein terminology that differs substantially from that generally used by coleopterists. We tabulate the differences between currently used venational nomenclature and the all-pterygote homologous symbols. The use of the neopteran groundplan, combined with the knowledge of the way in which veins evolved, provides many strong characters linked to the early evolutionary radiation of Coleoptera. The order originated with the development of the apical folding of the hind wings under the elytra executed by the radial and medial loop. The loops, which are very complex venational structures, further diversified in four distinctly different ways which mark the highest (suborder) taxa. The remaining venation and the wing articulation have changed with the loops, which formed additional synapomorphies and autapomorphies at the suborder, superfamily, and sometimes even family and tribe levels. Relationships among the four currently recognized suborders of Coleoptera are reexamined using hind wing characters. The number of wing-related apomorphies are 16 in Coleoptera, seven in Archostemata + Adephaga–Myxophaga, four in Adephaga–Myxophaga, seven in Myxophaga, nine in Archostemata, and five in Polyphaga. The following phylogenetic scheme is suggested: Polyphaga [Archostemata (Adephaga + Myxophaga)]. Venational evidence is given to define two major lineages (the hydrophiloid and the eucinetoid) within the suborder Polyphaga. The unique apical wing folding mechanism of beetles is described. Derived types of wing folding are discussed, based mainly on a survey of recent literature. A sister group relationship between Coleoptera and Strepsiptera is supported by hind wing evidence.

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Abstract: The species representation of public databases is growing rapidly and permits increasingly detailed phylogenetic inferences We present a supermatrix based on all gene sequences of Coleoptera available in Genbank for two nuclear (18S and 28S rRNA) and two mitochondrial (rrnL and cox1) genes After filtering for unique species names and the addition of ˜2000 unpublished sequences for cox1 and 18S rRNA, the resulting data matrix included 8441 species-level terminals and 6600 aligned nucleotide positions The concatenated matrix represents the equivalent of 217% of the 390 000 described species of Coleoptera and includes 152 beetle families The remaining 29 families constitute small lineages with ˜250 known species in total Taxonomic coverage remains low for several major lineages, including Buprestidae (016% of described species), Staphylinidae (103%), Tenebrionidae (090%) and Cerambycidae (058%) The current taxon sampling was strongly biased towards the Northern Hemisphere Phylogenetic trees obtained from the supermatrix were in very good agreement with the Linnaean classification, in particular at the family level, but lower for the subfamily and lowest for the genus level The topology supports the basal split of Derodontidae and Scirtoidea from the remaining Polyphaga, and the broad paraphyly of Cucujoidea The data extraction pipeline and detailed tree provide a framework for placement of any new sequences, including environmental samples, into a DNA-based classification system of Coleoptera