Data from: Expressed sequence tags reveal Proctotrupomorpha (minus Chalcidoidea) as sister to Aculeata (Hymenoptera: Insecta)

Hymenoptera is one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet and
have vital importance for ecosystem function as pollinators and
parasitoids. Higher level relationships among Hymenoptera have been
notoriously difficult to resolve with both morphological and traditional
molecular approaches. Here we examined the utility of expressed sequence
tags for resolving relationships among hymenopteran superfamilies.
Transcripts were assembled for 6 disparate Hymenopteran taxa with
additional sequences added from public databases for a final dataset of 24
genes for 16 taxa and over 10kb of sequence data. The concatenated dataset
recovered a robust and well-supported topology demonstrating the monophyly
of Holometabola, Hymenoptera, Apocrita, Aculeata, Ichneumonoidea, and a
sister relationship between the two most closely related proctotrupomorphs
in the dataset (Cynipoidea + Proctotrupoidea). The data strongly supported
a sister relationship between Aculeata and Proctotrupomorpha, contrary to
previously proposed hypotheses. Additionally there was strong evidence
indicating Ichneumonoidea as sister to Aculeata + Proctotrupomorpha. These
relationships were robust to missing data, nucleotide composition biases,
low taxonomic sampling, and conflicting signal across gene trees. There
was also strong evidence indicating that Chalcidoidea is not contained
within Proctotrupomorpha.