Data from: A preliminary molecular phylogeny of shield-bearer moths (Lepidoptera: Adeloidea: Heliozelidae) highlights rich undescribed diversity

Heliozelidae are a widespread, evolutionarily early diverging family of
small, day-flying monotrysian moths, for which a comprehensive phylogeny
is lacking. We generated the first molecular phylogeny of the family using
DNA sequences of two mitochondrial genes (COI and COII) and two nuclear
genes (H3 and 28S) from 130 Heliozelidae specimens, including eight of the
twelve known genera: Antispila, Antispilina, Coptodisca, Heliozela,
Holocacista, Hoplophanes, Pseliastis, and Tyriozela. Our results provide
strong support for five major Heliozelidae clades: (i) a large widespread
clade containing the leaf-mining genera Antispilina, Coptodisca and
Holocacista and some species of Antispila, (ii) a clade containing most of
the described Antispila, (iii) a clade containing the leaf-mining genus
Heliozela and the monotypic genus Tyriozela, (iv) an Australian clade
containing Pseliastis and (v) an Australian clade containing Hoplophanes.
Each clade includes several new species and potentially new genera.
Collectively, our data uncover a rich and undescribed diversity that
appears to be especially prevalent in Australia. Our work highlights the
need for a major taxonomic revision of the family and for generating a
robust molecular phylogeny using multi-gene approaches in order to resolve
the relationships among clades.