Data for: Plio-Pleistocene decline of mesic forest underpins diversification in a clade of Australian Panesthia cockroaches

The progressive aridification of the Australian continent and the coincident decline of mesic forests have been a powerful driver of allopatric and environmental speciation in native species. The relictual mesic forests of the eastern seaboard now harbour a diverse group of endemic fauna, including the wood-feeding cockroaches of the genus Panesthia, which reached the continent via two separate invasions from Melanesia. The more recent of these colonisation events gave rise to a group of five recognised species, occurring in mainland woodlands, sclerophylls, and rainforests, as well as the forests and grasslands of the Lord Howe Island Group. Due to limited sampling in molecular studies and doubt regarding the standing taxonomy, there is little certainty about relationships among the species and a poor understanding of the effects of ancient climatic change upon their evolution. We undertook a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the clade, using complete mitogenomes and nuclear ribos..., , , # Data for: Plio-Pleistocene decline of mesic forest underpins diversification in a clade of Australian Panesthia cockroaches

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp3q](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp3q)

## Description of the data and file structure

Sequence data assembled in SPAdes and aligned in Geneious Prime. Phylogenetic trees were estimated in IQTREE2 and BEAST.

### Files and variables

#### File: Figure3\_raw\.tre

**Description:** Nuclear phylogeny estimated in IQTREE

#### File: Figure2\_raw\.tre

**Description:** Mitochondrial phylogeny estimated in BEAST

#### File: FigureS1\_raw\.tre

**Description:** Mitochondrial phylogeny estimated in IQTREE

#### File: FigureS2\_raw\.tre

**Description:** Nuclear phylogeny estimated in BEAST

#### File: nuclear\_alignment.nex

**Description:** Nuclear ribosomal alignment

#### File: mitogenome\_alignment.nex

**Description:** Mitochondrial genomic alignment

## Code/software

Phylogenetic trees can be opened in FigTree, and alig...,