Phylogeny of gracillariid leaf-mining moths: evolution of larval behaviour inferred from phylogenomic and Sanger data

Gracillariidae is the most taxonomically diverse cosmopolitan leaf-mining moth family, consisting of nearly 2000 named species in 105 described genera, classified into eight extant subfamilies. The majority of gracillariid species are internal plant feeders as larvae, creating mines and galls in plant tissue. Despite their diversity and ecological adaptations, their phylogenetic relationships, especially at the subfamily level, remain largely uncertain. Genomic data (83 taxa and 589 loci) were integrated with Sanger data (130 taxa and 22 loci), to reconstruct a phylogeny of Gracillariidae. Based on analyses of both data sets combined and analyzed separately, the monophyly of Gracillariidae and all its subfamilies, and the monophyly of the clade ‘LAMPO’ (subfamilies: Lithocolletinae, Acrocercopinae, Marmarinae, Phyllocnistinae, and Oecophyllembiinae) and relationships of its subclade ‘AMO’ (subfamilies: Acrocercopinae, Marmarinae, and Oecophyllembiinae) were strongly supported. A sister ...