Congruence of morphological and molecular phylogenies of the rove beetle subfamily Staphylininae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae)

Abstract

Staphylininae is the third largest subfamily of the enormous family Staphylinidae. Monophyly of Staphylininae and its sister relationship to the subfamily Paederinae have been broadly accepted according to both conventional morphology- and molecular-based phylogenies until the last three years. Recent molecular phylogenies rejected monophyly of Staphylininae and regarded Paederinae as a clade within it. This paper re-evaluates the recent molecular work, aiming to clarify the relationship between Staphylininae and Paederinae and resolve intertribal relationships within Staphylininae. Based on a new six-gene data set (5707 bp) for 92 taxa including Oxyporinae (outgroup), representatives of Paederinae, and members of all extant tribes of Staphylininae from published DNA data in GenBank, we generated a well-resolved phylogeny of Staphylininae with all deep nodes (intertribal relationships) strongly supported, and reassert the hypothesis that Staphylininae is monophyletic and indeed the sister group to Paederinae using both Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference. Additionally, our study is a case-study to show that both outgroup selection and completeness of nucleotide data can influence the outcome of a molecular phylogeny. With an increasing number of staphylinid fossils being discovered, the robust phylogeny of Staphylininae inferred by our research will provide a good framework for understanding the early evolution of this group.

New Data, Old Story: Molecular Data Illuminate the Tribal Relationships among Rove Beetles of the Subfamily Staphylininae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae)

“…Insects 2020, 11, 164 2 of 12 relationship between Staphylininae and Paederinae is well-supported by multiple adult [14,15] and larval characters [16], along with analyses of six and two genes [3,13].…”

“…res.). We review the current classification of Staphylininae and discuss sources of incongruence in multigene phylogenies.Insects 2020, 11, 164 2 of 12 relationship between Staphylininae and Paederinae is well-supported by multiple adult [14,15] and larval characters [16], along with analyses of six and two genes [3,13].As is typical of many large and morphologically diverse taxa, the evolutionary relationships among staphylinine tribes remain poorly resolved, with morphological and molecular analyses yielding ambivalent results [3,10,12,13,[17][18][19][20][21]. Notably, molecular studies conducted principally over the last four years have recovered several unexpected topologies within Staphylininae, with implications for the classification of this megadiverse subfamily.…”

“…Recently, the relationship between Staphylininae and Paederinae was restudied by Cai et al [3] andŻyła and Solodovnikov [21]; both studies included six genes for representatives of all staphylinine tribes. Cai et al [3] demonstrated that the paraphyly of Staphylininae is a phylogenetic artefact resulting from limited taxon sampling within Staphylininae in earlier studies and the selection of misleading outgroup taxa that lacked sequences for informative genes. While Staphylininae is now well-supported as monophyletic in the traditional sense [3,21], taxonomic changes were introduced bẏ Zyła and Solodovnikov [21] that divided Staphylininae into four new subfamilies.…”

“…Cai et al [3] demonstrated that the paraphyly of Staphylininae is a phylogenetic artefact resulting from limited taxon sampling within Staphylininae in earlier studies and the selection of misleading outgroup taxa that lacked sequences for informative genes. While Staphylininae is now well-supported as monophyletic in the traditional sense [3,21], taxonomic changes were introduced bẏ Zyła and Solodovnikov [21] that divided Staphylininae into four new subfamilies. Further questions surround the relationship between the enigmatic genera Arrowinus and Platyprosopus.…”

“…As is typical of many large and morphologically diverse taxa, the evolutionary relationships among staphylinine tribes remain poorly resolved, with morphological and molecular analyses yielding ambivalent results [3,10,12,13,[17][18][19][20][21]. Notably, molecular studies conducted principally over the last four years have recovered several unexpected topologies within Staphylininae, with implications for the classification of this megadiverse subfamily.…”