Evolution of body size and wing shape trade-offs in arsenurine silkmoths

One of the key objectives in biological research is understanding how evolutionary processes have produced Earth's diversity. A critical step towards revealing these processes is an investigation of evolutionary tradeoffs – that is, the opposing pressures of multiple selective forces. For millennia, nocturnal moths have had to balance successful flight, as they search for mates or host plants, with evading bat predators. However, the potential for evolutionary trade-offs between wing shape and body size are poorly understood. In this study, we used phylogenomics and geometric morphometrics to examine the evolution of wing shape in the wild silkmoth subfamily Arsenurinae (Saturniidae) and evaluate potential evolutionary relationships between body size and wing shape. The phylogeny was inferred based on 782 loci from target capture data of 42 arsenurine species representing all 10 recognized genera. After detecting in our data one of the most vexing problems in phylogenetic inference – a ...生物学研究的核心目标之一，便是阐释演化进程如何塑造了地球生物多样性。揭示这些演化进程的关键一步，便是对演化权衡（evolutionary tradeoffs）展开研究——即多种选择压力之间的对立约束作用。数千年来，夜行性蛾类在寻觅配偶或寄主植物时，必须在高效飞行与躲避蝙蝠捕食者之间维持平衡。然而，学界对翅形与体型之间存在演化权衡的可能性仍知之甚少。本研究采用系统基因组学（phylogenomics）与几何形态测量学（geometric morphometrics）方法，对野生蚕蛾亚科Arsenurinae（天蚕蛾科Saturniidae）的翅形演化展开分析，并评估体型与翅形之间潜在的演化关联。本研究基于覆盖全部10个已确认属的42种Arsenurinae蛾类的目标捕获数据中的782个基因座，构建了系统发育树。在对本研究数据进行分析后，我们发现了系统发育推断中最棘手的问题之一——……