Phylogenomic inference of the higher classification of velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae)

The family Mutillidae (Hymenoptera) is a species-rich group of aculeate wasps that occur worldwide. The higher-level classification of the family has historically been controversial due in part to the extreme sexual dimorphism exhibited by these insects and their morphological similarity to other wasp taxa that also have apterous females. Modern hypotheses on the internal higher classification of Mutillidae have been exclusively based on morphology and, further, they include Myrmosinae as a mutillid subfamily. In contrast, several molecular-based family-level studies of Aculeata recovered Myrmosinae as a non-mutillid taxon. In order to test the validity of these morphology-based classifications and the phylogenetic placement of the controversial taxon Myrmosinae, a phylogenomic study of Mutillidae was conducted using ultraconserved elements (UCEs). All currently recognized subfamilies and tribes of Mutillidae were represented in this study using 140 ingroup taxa. The maximum-likelihood criterion (ML) and the maximum-parsimony criterion (MP) were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships within the family and related taxa using an aligned data set of 238,764 characters. Dating analyses were conducted to infer the ages of the Pompiloidea families (Mutillidae, Pompilidae, and Sapygidae) and the ages of the Mutillidae subfamilies and tribes.