title: Towards a phylogeny of the Tenebrionoidea (Coleoptera).
abstract: The phylogenetic relationships of the beetle superfamily Tenebrionoidea are investigated using the most comprehensive genetic data set compiled to date. With ∼34,000 described species in approximately 1250 genera and 28 families, Tenebrionoidea represent one of the most diverse and species-rich superfamilies of beetles. The interfamilial relationships of the Tenebrionoidea are poorly known; previous morphological and molecular phylogenies recovered few well-supported and often conflicting relationships between families. Here we present a molecular phylogeny of Tenebrionoidea based on genes commonly used to resolve family and superfamily-level phylogenies of beetles (18S, 28S, 16S, 12S, tRNA Val and COI). The alignment spanned over 6.5KB of DNA sequence and over 300 tenebrionoid genera from 24 of the 28 families were sampled. Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analysis could not resolve deeper level divergences within the superfamily and very few relationships between families were supported. Increasing gene coverage in the alignment by removing taxa with missing data did not improve clade support but when rogue taxa were removed increased resolution was recovered. Investigation of signal strength suggested conflicting phylogenetic signal was present in the standard genes used for beetle phylogenetics, even when rogue taxa were removed. Our study of Tenebrionoidea highlights that even with relatively comprehensive taxon sampling within a lineage, this standard set of genes is unable to resolve relationships within this superfamily.
authors: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic; CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Electronic address: nicolelgunter@gmail.com.
authors: Nicole L
authors: NL
authors: Gunter
authors: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors: Zuzana
authors: Z
authors: Levkaničová
authors: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors: Tom H
authors: TH
authors: Weir
authors: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors: Adam
authors: A
authors: Ślipiński
authors: Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences School, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia.
authors: Stephen L
authors: SL
authors: Cameron
authors: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors: Ladislav
authors: L
authors: Bocak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D017344:Genes, Insect; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
keywords: Anthicidae; Lymexyloidea; Rogue taxa; Signal strength; Tenebrionidae; Zopheridae