Data from: Anchored phylogenomics illuminates the skipper butterfly tree of life

Butterflies (Papilionoidea) are perhaps the most charismatic insect
lineage, yet phylogenetic relationships among them remain incompletely
studied and controversial. We sequenced nearly 400 loci using Anchored
Hybrid Enrichment and sampled all tribes and more than 120 genera of
skippers (Hesperiidae), one of the most species-rich and poorly studied
butterfly families. Maximum-likelihood, parsimony and coalescent
multi-species methods all converged on a novel, robust phylogenetic
hypothesis for skippers. Different optimality criteria and methodologies
recovered almost identical phylogenetic trees with strong nodal support at
nearly all taxonomic levels. Our results support Coeliadinae as the sister
group to the remaining skippers, the monotypic Euschemoninae as sister
group to all other subfamilies but Coeliadinae, and the monophyly of
Eudaminae plus Pyrginae. Within Pyrginae, Celaenorrhinini and Tagiadini
are sister groups, the Neotropical firetips, Pyrrhopygini, are sister to
all other tribes but Celaenorrhinini and Tagiadini. Achlyodini is
recovered as the sister group to Carcharodini, and Erynnini as sister
group to Pyrgini. Within Hesperiinae, there is strong support for the
monophyly of Aeromachini plus remaining Hesperiinae. The giant skippers
(Agathymus and Megathymus) once classified as a single subfamily, are
recovered as monophyletic with strong support, but are deeply nested
within grass skippers (Hesperiinae). These results enhance understanding
of the evolution of one of the most species-rich butterfly families.