PRJNA859127
Phylogenomics reveals within species diversification but incongruence with color phenotypes in widespread orchid bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini)
Coloration is an important phenotypic trait for taxonomic studies and has been widely used for identifying insect species and populations. However, coloration can be a poor diagnostic character for insect species that exhibit high polymorphism in this trait, which can lead to over-splitting of taxonomic units. In orchid bees, color variation has been interpreted by different taxonomists as either polymorphism associated with Mullerian mimicry complexes or diagnostic traits for species identification. Despite this uncertainty, integrative approaches that incorporate multiple independent datasets to test the validity of hair coloration as a character that identifies independent evolutionary units have not been used. Here, we used phylogenomic data from Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs) to explore whether color phenotypes in the widespread orchid bee species complexes Eulaema meriana and Eulaema bombiformis correspond to independent lineages or polymorphic trait variation within species.