State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, College of Ecology and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2021 Mar;156:107045. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2020.107045. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Ladybirds (family Coccinellidae) are one of the most diverse groups of beetles and globally comprise over 6000 species. Despite their scientific and economic significance, the taxonomy of Coccinellidae remains unstable, and we still know little about their evolutionary history. By using a small number of genes, previous phylogenetic analyses have not reliably resolved the relationships among major ladybird lineages. In this study, we sequenced 94 nuclear protein-coding genes for 214 species of Coccinellidae and 14 outgroups, covering 90 genera and 35 tribes. We found that nucleotide compositional heterogeneity is present among ladybird tribes so that phylogenetic inference at the amino acid level is more reliable than at the DNA level. Based on the maximum likelihood analyses of the amino acid dataset, we recognize three subfamilies in Coccinellidae: Microweiseinae, Monocoryninae stat. nov., and Coccinellinae. The subfamily relationships are strongly supported as (Microweiseinae, (Monocoryninae stat. nov., Coccinellinae)). The tribes of ladybirds are mostly monophyletic, except Ortaliini, Sticholotidini, Scymnini, and Coccidulini. The phylogenetic relationships among tribes of Coccinellinae are still not well resolved, with many nodes weakly supported. Our divergence time analysis suggests that the crown group of extant lady beetles arose in the Early Cretaceous ~ 143 million years ago (Mya) and experienced a rapid diversification during the Late Cretaceous (120-70 Mya). We hypothesize that the boom of angiosperms in the Late Cretaceous promoted the diversification of herbivorous Sternorrhyncha insects, especially aphids, which in turn drove the rapid radiation of predatory lady beetles. In summary, our work provides a comprehensive time-calibrated phylogeny of Coccinellidae that provides a sound framework for revising their classification and understanding the origin of their biodiversity.
瓢虫（瓢虫科）是甲虫中最多样化的群体之一，全球有超过 6000 种。尽管它们具有重要的科学和经济意义，但瓢虫科的分类仍然不稳定，我们对它们的进化历史知之甚少。以前的系统发育分析使用少数基因，无法可靠地解决主要瓢虫谱系之间的关系。在这项研究中，我们对 214 种瓢虫科和 14 个外群的 94 个核蛋白编码基因进行了测序，涵盖了 90 个属和 35 个部落。我们发现，瓢虫部落之间存在核苷酸组成异质性，因此在氨基酸水平上进行系统发育推断比在 DNA 水平上更可靠。基于氨基酸数据集的最大似然分析，我们在瓢虫科中识别出三个亚科：Microweiseinae、Monocoryninae stat. nov. 和 Coccinellinae。亚科关系得到了强烈支持，即（Microweiseinae，（Monocoryninae stat. nov.，Coccinellinae））。除了 Ortaliini、Sticholotidini、Scymnini 和 Coccidulini 之外，瓢虫的部落大多是单系的。Coccinellinae 部落之间的系统发育关系仍然没有得到很好的解决，许多节点支持较弱。我们的分化时间分析表明，现存的瓢虫冠群出现在早白垩世~1.43 亿年前（Mya），并在晚白垩世（1.2 亿至 7000 万年前）经历了快速多样化。我们假设，晚白垩世被子植物的繁荣促进了植食性半翅目昆虫，特别是蚜虫的多样化，这反过来又推动了捕食性瓢虫的快速辐射。总之，我们的工作提供了瓢虫科的综合时间校准系统发育，为修订它们的分类和理解它们生物多样性的起源提供了一个良好的框架。
