Advances in phylogenomics of Noctuidae

Monophyly of the moth superfamily Noctuoidea is strongly supported by morphological and molecular evidence, but the status of its families remains uncertain. This is especially the case for one of the largest families, Noctuidae, due its longtime use as a ‘trash can’ taxon for placement of species whose true family affiliations could not be more reliably inferred with morphology. In order to better understand the evolution of Noctuidae, we generated a phylogenomic dataset with 698 loci from 194 species: 129 noctuids, representing all 23 noctuid subfamilies, and 65 outgroup taxa representing all other noctuoid families and all other major lineages of Macroheterocera. Approximately 84% of the noctuid sequences were obtained through dried museum specimens and combined with previously published noctuoid genomes from GenBank. We performed phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood and multi-species coalescent analyses resulting in strongly supported relationships of higher-level groups in Noctuidae. Our results suggested that four noctuid subfamilies (Eustrotiinae, Plusiinae, Dyopsinae, Pantheinae), along with one subfamily (Diphtherinae) in the noctuoid family Nolidae, must be reclassified as families in order to maintain monophyly of the existing Noctuoidea families. In addition, we support these molecular results with morphology by proposing apomorphies to define and diagnose these family-group clades. This work represents a major step forward in understanding a megadiverse group of Lepidoptera. It also demonstrates that, even in the age of phylogenomics, traditional museum collections are still integral to evolutionary research.