Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the southern African lacewing genus Afroptera (Neuroptera: Nemopteridae: Nemopterinae)

The lacewing genus Afroptera Abdalla & Mansell (Neuroptera: Nemopteridae: Nemopterinae) is endemic to southern Africa, predominantly found in the Fynbos and Succulent Karoo biomes. The taxonomy of the genus has been recently resolved. However, the monophyly and evolutionary history of the genus has never been addressed. This study employs an integrative phylogenetic approach, by incorporating three ribosomal genes (16S, 28S, and 18S) and two protein-coding genes (COI and CAD), and morphological data to examine the monophyly and historical biogeography of Afroptera. We use Bayesian, parsimony and maximum likelihood phylogenetic methods to assess the monophyly and relatedness of Afroptera within the Nemopterinae. We also use ancestral ranges reconstruction and diversification analysis to infer the historical biogeography of the genus. Our analyses reveals the genus as a monophyletic lineage. The genus Afroptera originated during the Pliocene (5.24–3.13 Mya) in a desert environment, ex..., Sampling and taxon selection
a)     To test the monophyly and relatedness of the Nemopterinae genera, we included as in-group taxa all known southern African Nemopterinae genera: Barbibucca, Derhynchia, Halterina, Knersvlaktia, Nemeura, Nemia, Palmipenna, Semirhynchia and Sicyoptera, as well as the Australian Chasmoptera Westwood, in addition to the newly proposed Nemopterella Banks sensu stricto, Afroptera Abdalla & Mansell, and Siccanada Abdalla & Mansell. The only genus not included in this study is Nemopistha. A representative of the subfamily Crocinae, Laurhervasia setacea (Klug), was chosen as the out-group taxon, following Sole et al (2013).
b)    To study the biogeography and diversification estimate time of the genus Afroptera, we included 14 species from the genus Afroptera on the basis of availability and suitability of fresh material for DNA extraction. We also include species of two genera, Knersvlaktia (one sp.) and Palmipenna (three spp.), as these taxa were rega..., , # Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the southern African lacewing genus Afroptera (Neuroptera: Nemopteridae: Nemopterinae)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f56k](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f56k)

The dataset comprises both raw molecular and morphological data used for phylogenetic inferences.

We have also included R-code scripts for biogeographical analysis using the R package ‘BioGeoBEARS’ and diversification analysis—a plot of lineage through time (LTT) and compound Poisson process on mass extinction times (CoMET) as implemented in the R (R Core Team, 2019) package ‘TESS’. 

## Description of the data and file structure

* The molecular data comprises five gene regions as follows: three ribosomal genes (16S -, 28S, and 18S) and two protein-coding genes (COI - Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I and CAD - carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase-aspartate transcarbamoylase-dihydroorotase). The data are in fasta file format. Also, we have attached a list of morphological characters u...