Abstract
The macroevolutionary history of the megadiverse insect order Lepidoptera remains little-known, yet coevolutionary dynamics with their angiospermous host plants are thought to have influenced their diversification significantly. We estimate the divergence times of all higher-level lineages of Lepidoptera, including most extant families. We find that the diversification of major lineages in Lepidoptera are approximately equal in age to the crown group of angiosperms and that there appear to have been three significant increases in diversification rates among Lepidoptera over evolutionary time: 1) at the origin of the crown group of Ditrysia about 150 million years ago (mya), 2) at the origin of the stem group of Apoditrysia about 120 mya and finally 3) a spectacular increase at the origin of the stem group of the quadrifid noctuoids about 70 mya. In addition, there appears to be a significant increase in diversification rate in multiple lineages around 90 mya, which is concordant with the radiation of angiosperms. Almost all extant families appear to have begun diversifying soon after the Cretaceous/Paleogene event 65.51 mya.
Highlights
Lepidoptera is the second largest order after Coleoptera of largely phytophagous insects, and the largest order that is almost entirely associated with angiospermous plants [1]
Striking is the preponderance of extremely short internal branches leading to the superfamily clades in the molecular studies [7,8,9]. We ask whether this short branching is an artifact of too little data, or the likely result of rapid adaptive radiations associated with the rise of angiosperms, as postulated by Ehrlich and Raven [4] in their untested hypothesis of coevolutionary dynamics
The Modeling Evolutionary Diversity Using Stepwise AIC (MEDUSA) method found three significant increases in diversification rates and one significant decrease along the maximum credibility tree of Lepidoptera (Fig. 1)
Summary
Lepidoptera is the second largest order after Coleoptera of largely phytophagous insects, and the largest order that is almost entirely associated with angiospermous plants [1]. The order comprises 157,424 described species [2], and a likely similar number of undescribed species. Given their popularity with amateur and professional entomologists, the life histories and geographic distributions of Lepidoptera are arguably the best known among Insecta [3]. Common to all of these studies are fairly well-supported clades that can be defined as superfamilies, but very poor support for relationships among the superfamilies. This is most apparent in Ditrysia, which contains 99% of all lepidopteran species. We ask whether this short branching is an artifact of too little data, or the likely result of rapid adaptive radiations associated with the rise of angiosperms, as postulated by Ehrlich and Raven [4] in their untested hypothesis of coevolutionary dynamics
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