| Affiliation: | 1. Engineering Technology Research Center of Agricultural Pest Biocontrol, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China;2. Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland;3. Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia;4. Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany;5. Guangzhou Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Guangzhou, China;6. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of High Technology for Plant Protection, Plant Protection Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, China;7. Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia |
| Abstract: | Ladybirds of the cosmopolitan tribe Chilocorini prey mainly on coccids and include several important biocontrol agents. The phylogenetic relationships of Chilocorini are poorly known. In this paper, we provide a phylogenetic reconstruction of Chilocorini containing all 27 genera based on five molecular markers and 86 adult morphological characters. Morphological character states were mapped on the combined data tree from Bayesian inference to analyse morphological traits of each genus. Sixteen morphological characters were selected to reconstruct the ancestral states using maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. Divergence times were estimated based on the relaxed molecular clock approach. Our results indicate that Chilocorini, excluding Chilocorellus Miyatake, is monophyletic and closely related to Plotinini. The crown group Chilocorini was estimated to date back to the Middle Cretaceous. Anisorcus Crotch, Egius Mulsant, Phaenochilus Weise and Simmondsius Ahmad & Ghani are synonymized here with Chilocorus Leach ( syn.n. ). The genus Chilocorellus is excluded from Chilocorini. The split of current genera was estimated to have occurred during the Middle Paleogene to Late Paleogene. |
