‘Picking up signals’ in male genital morphospace and integrating phylogenomics to delimit Neotropical Nylanderia Emery species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Genital morphology, a cornerstone in taxonomy that predates Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, is vital for species delimitation. However, the widely accepted paradigm that genitalia are taxonomically informative lacks robust testing between closely related species, and supporting evidence is often limited to taxonomic literature in which genitalia are assumed a priori to be species-specific. The cosmopolitan ant genus Nylanderia Emery includes 125 described species, with most in the Neotropics still undescribed. Workers are often morphologically cryptic, and males are rare in collections but required for morphological delimitation. Using Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs) from 236 samples including 50 Neotropical Nylanderia species, we reconstructed phylogeny as a framework to compare genitalia (gonopods) of males collected alongside workers. We used geometric morphometrics on images of slide mounted genitalia from 14 morphospecies and nano-CT scans of Nylanderia fulva (Mayr) and Nylanderia puben..., , , # ‘Picking up signals’ in male genital morphospace and integrating phylogenomics to delimit Neotropical *Nylanderia* Emery species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sr86](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sr86)

## Description of the data and file structure

The dataset for this study includes molecular and morphological data collected from Neotropical species in the ant genus *Nylanderia *Emery. The molecular dataset includes ultraconserved element (UCE) sequences from 53 species across 236 specimens, including three samples that were used as outgroups. The morphological dataset is comprised of: (1) two-dimensional landmark data for male genitalia (gonopods) from 83 specimens representing 16 species; and (2) three-dimensional models and landmark data for gonopods from 38 specimens representing lineages specifically within the* Nylanderia fulva* (Mayr) complex of species. Further information on bioinformatics, phylogenetic reconstruction, dissection, nano-...