Whitfield James B, Kjer Karl M
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61821, USA.
Annu Rev Entomol. 2008;53:449-72. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ento.53.103106.093304.
Phylogenies of major groups of insects based on both morphological and molecular data have sometimes been contentious, often lacking the data to distinguish between alternative views of relationships. This paucity of data is often due to real biological and historical causes, such as shortness of time spans between divergences for evolution to occur and long time spans after divergences for subsequent evolutionary changes to obscure the earlier ones. Another reason for difficulty in resolving some of the relationships using molecular data is the limited spectrum of genes so far developed for phylogeny estimation. For this latter issue, there is cause for current optimism owing to rapid increases in our knowledge of comparative genomics. At least some historical patterns of divergence may, however, continue to defy our attempts to completely reconstruct them with confidence, at least using current strategies.
基于形态学和分子数据构建的主要昆虫类群系统发育关系有时存在争议，常常缺乏数据来区分不同的关系观点。数据匮乏往往是由实际的生物学和历史原因造成的，比如分化之间的时间跨度短，进化难以发生，以及分化之后的时间跨度长，后续的进化变化掩盖了早期的变化。使用分子数据难以解析某些关系的另一个原因是，目前用于系统发育估计的基因谱系有限。对于后一个问题，由于我们在比较基因组学方面的知识迅速增加，目前有理由感到乐观。然而，至少一些历史分化模式可能会继续使我们难以完全自信地重建它们，至少按照目前的策略是这样。
