Abstract
Fishflies (Corydalidae: Chauliodinae) with a total of ca. 130 extant species are one of the major groups of the holometabolous insect order Megaloptera. As a group which originated during the Mesozoic, the phylogeny and historical biogeography of fishflies are of high interest. The previous hypothesis on the evolutionary history of fishflies was based primarily on morphological data. To further test the existing phylogenetic relationships and to understand the divergence pattern of fishflies, we conducted a molecule-based study. We determined the complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes of two Australian fishfly species, Archichauliodes deceptor Kimmins, 1954 and Protochauliodes biconicus Kimmins, 1954, both members of a major subgroup of Chauliodinae with high phylogenetic significance. A phylogenomic analysis was carried out based on 13 mt protein coding genes (PCGs) and two rRNAs genes from the megalopteran species with determined mt genomes. Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses recovered the Dysmicohermes clade as the sister group of the Archichauliodes clade + the Protochauliodes clade, which is consistent with the previous morphology-based hypothesis. The divergence time estimation suggested that the divergence among the three major subgroups of fishflies occurred during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous when the supercontinent Pangaea was undergoing sequential breakup.
Highlights
The subfamily Chauliodinae, commonly known as fishflies, is one of the three major groups of the holometabolous order Megaloptera
The complete mt genome of A. deceptor is a typical circular, double-strand molecule of 15,797 bp in length (GenBank accession number: KU925864; Fig. 1, Table 1), which is relatively small in size compared to the mt genomes of Megaloptera known far, with length ranging from 15,687 bp (Corydalus cornutus, Corydalidae, NC_011226) to 16,271 bp (Dysmicohermes ingens, Corydalidae, NC_16271)
Our results are generally consistent with the previous morphology-based phylogeny, in which the Dysmicohermes clade was the sister group of the Archichauliodes clade + the Protochauliodes clade, we could not corroborate the monophyly of each clade due to lack of many genera
Summary
The subfamily Chauliodinae, commonly known as fishflies, is one of the three major groups of the holometabolous order Megaloptera. Fishflies live mainly in the subtropical or warm temperate regions, and they occur in all zoogeographical realms They show a remarkably discontinuous distribution due to their absence in the western Palaearctic realm and most parts of the Afrotropical and Neotropical realms[4]. We determined and describe the complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes of two fishfly species, namely Archichauliodes deceptor Kimmins, 1954 and Protochauliodes biconicus Kimmins, 1954. A phylogenomic analysis was performed with known mt genome data of Megaloptera to infer the phylogenetic positions of Archichauliodes and Protochauliodes and to test the previous phylogeny of Chauliodinae based on morphological data. The historical biogeography of fishflies is discussed in light of the new evidence from the molecular data
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
