CladisticsPub Date : 2026-10-27DOI: 10.1111/cla.70070
Dora Hlebec, Alba Enguídanos García, Marita Machata, Miquel A Arnedo
{"title":"Integrative phylogenomics uncovers hidden diversity and repeated cave colonizations in Dinaric pseudoscorpions.","authors":"Dora Hlebec, Alba Enguídanos García, Marita Machata, Miquel A Arnedo","doi":"10.1111/cla.70070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Subterranean ecosystems harbour exceptional biodiversity shaped by adaptation to extreme environments, yet remain poorly explored. Cave organisms, restricted to small, isolated populations, are extinction-prone, making integrative species delimitation essential for biodiversity assessment and conservation. The Dinaric Karst, a global hotspot of subterranean diversity, is home to Neobisium spelaeum, the first described cave pseudoscorpion, whose evolutionary history remains unknown. We investigated diversification dynamics by integrating mitochondrial and genomic data with population genetics, species delimitation, demographic modelling and morphological analyses across N. spelaeum and its relative N. stygium. DNA barcode analyses suggest repeated subterranean colonizations across cave-dwelling Neobisium. Within this polyphyletic assemblage, N. spelaeum and N. stygium form a clade. Genome-wide data reveal eight deeply divergent lineages corresponding to karst regions shaped by Oligocene-Miocene geological barriers, plus seven additional singletons, whereas mito-nuclear discordance complicates the reconstruction of evolutionary trajectories. Morphological differentiation among lineages is subtle but statistically significant. Demographic analyses reveal bottlenecks at 270 000-470 000 years ago followed by population expansions, compatible with regional cave colonization events during Middle Pleistocene glacial cycles. Our findings highlight the Dinaric Karst as a major centre of subterranean endemism, underscoring the need to protect karst landscapes and their endemic fauna while providing a framework for taxonomic revision and conservation planning.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-10-25DOI: 10.1111/cla.70076
Daniel Yudi Miyahara Nakamura, Taran Grant, Ward C Wheeler
{"title":"Preprocessing missing data and partitions for phylogenetic analysis under dynamic homology, with application to museomics and phylogenomics.","authors":"Daniel Yudi Miyahara Nakamura, Taran Grant, Ward C Wheeler","doi":"10.1111/cla.70076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70076","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In dynamic homology, data must usually be preprocessed to distinguish sequencing artefacts (missing data) from insertion-deletion events, but empirical studies using POY/PhyG have employed manual preprocessing. Here, we compare different procedures for handling missing data for dynamic homology, present Python scripts to automate these procedures, and evaluate their performance using 60 simulated and 4 empirical datasets (including Sanger, phylogenomic and historical DNA sequences). We clarify that coding missing data as gaps or unknown nucleotides/amino acids is theoretically and methodologically inappropriate. In contrast, isolating missing data via partitioning or coding it as any observed state or no state (\"?\", the maximally polymorphic state; N + gap for nucleotides, X + gap for amino acids) is defensible but involves trade-offs. Partitioning can decrease time complexity but weakens homology testing by isolating potentially homologous nucleotides in different partitions. Conversely, question marks enable unconstrained homology testing but increase time complexity. To balance these trade-offs, we propose heuristic strategies to select optimal partitioning. Our methods reduced time complexity in large simulated datasets and improved tree costs in all empirical datasets, highlighting the importance of properly identifying missing data in dynamic homology analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149276750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-10-24DOI: 10.1111/cla.70078
Zhaoyi Li, Long Lin, Feng Zhang, Junxia Zhang
{"title":"Mitogenome-based phylogeny and evolutionary insights into Salticidae (Araneae) with emphasis on gene order evolution and selective pressures.","authors":"Zhaoyi Li, Long Lin, Feng Zhang, Junxia Zhang","doi":"10.1111/cla.70078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70078","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Salticidae (jumping spiders) is the most species-rich family within Araneae. Despite recent advances in phylogenomic studies, mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) evolution and its contribution to understanding phylogenetic relationships in Salticidae remain poorly characterized. Here, we present a mitochondrial phylogenomic analysis of 107 salticid species representing all seven recognized subfamilies. Using newly generated and publicly available mitogenomes, we investigated phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary patterns across the family, with a particular focus on comparisons between the highly diverse Salticinae and the species-poor non-Salticinae lineages. Our results show that the salticid mitogenomes are highly conserved in overall structure, with broadly similar genome size and nucleotide composition between Salticinae and non-Salticinae lineages. Codon usage showed a pronounced A/T bias, with both mutational pressure and natural selection contributing to codon usage patterns. Phylogenetic analyses strongly supported the monophyly of Salticidae and all seven subfamilies in the maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. Lyssomaninae and Asemoneinae were recovered as sister groups, as were Eupoinae and Spartaeinae, while Onomastinae was sister to the clade comprising Hisponinae and Salticinae. Within Salticinae, Amycoida and Salticoida were recovered as major lineages, although relationships within Salticoida were unstable among analytical methods. Selection analyses indicated that all 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes are predominantly under purifying selection, whereas nad2 showed the most consistent signals of positive selection in Salticinae across the branch-site, FEL and MEME analyses. Fifteen distinct gene rearrangement patterns were identified in Salticidae, including 13 novel patterns, with M5 inferred as the gene order of the most recent common ancestor of Salticidae. Gene rearrangements were more diverse in non-Salticinae, particularly within Spartaeinae. Transposition was inferred as the predominant type of mitochondrial gene rearrangements in Salticidae. Overall, this study provides mitochondrial evidence for phylogenetic relationships within Salticidae and contributes to our understanding of mitochondrial sequence evolution, selection and gene order evolution in jumping spiders.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149247211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Picea pan-transcriptomes reveal signatures of complex phylogenetic conflict and adaptation.","authors":"Zhaorui Fan, Lian Liu, Liru Ma, Qing Lai, Chaoran Weng, Shengming Lu, Hui Zhu, Jiahui Chen, Yongshuai Sun, Dafu Ru","doi":"10.1111/cla.70077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70077","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coniferous forests are among the ecosystems most exposed to rapid climate warming, and a well-resolved phylogeny of Picea is essential for understanding the evolutionary processes that have shaped diversification and regional differentiation across the genus. Here, we analysed pan-transcriptomes spanning 37 Picea species from across Northern Hemisphere forests. Our analyses reveal a bipartite pan-transcriptomic architecture in which core genes (9.4%) are associated primarily with fundamental cellular functions, whereas dispensable and private components (90.6% combined) are more strongly associated with ecological differentiation. Species trees inferred from low-copy orthologues resolve four major clades, and approximately 275 loci are sufficient to recover a stable backbone topology. Coalescent analyses indicate pervasive genealogical discordance, with incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) showing the greatest relative importance (27.75%) and gene-flow signals contributing less (7.27%). The most variable gene families (7.4%) further delimit three biogeographically structured regional groups: Qinghai-Tibet Plateau lineages are characterized by genes involved in environmental stress, signalling and low-oxygen responses; East Asian lineages show greater representation of protein metabolism and ubiquitin-mediated regulation; and Holarctic lineages are characterized by photosynthesis, chloroplast function, cell-wall processes and secondary metabolism. Together, these findings link regional gene-family differentiation with the persistence of ancestral polymorphism and provide a phylogenomic framework for understanding spruce diversification and for developing hypotheses relevant to climate-resilient forest conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149247257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-10-20DOI: 10.1111/cla.70074
Qi Feng, Jiajia Wang, Chenxin Zhou, Ding Yang, Michael S Engel, Dong Ren, Yongjie Wang
{"title":"Cretaceous Chikuniidae fam. nov. (Diptera: Brachycera) illuminates the evolution of blood-feeding in lower brachyceran flies.","authors":"Qi Feng, Jiajia Wang, Chenxin Zhou, Ding Yang, Michael S Engel, Dong Ren, Yongjie Wang","doi":"10.1111/cla.70074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With over 80 000 extant species, brachycerans are among the most diverse insect lineages, exhibiting a wide range of feeding strategies and ecological adaptations. Originating in the Early Jurassic, this megadiverse clade then underwent rapid speciation and morphological diversification during the Mesozoic, profoundly shaping its modern diversity. However, the early evolutionary history of many lineages remains poorly known due to a sparse fossil record. Here, we describe a new brachyceran family, †Chikuniidae Feng, Yang, Engel, Ren et Wang fam. nov., from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. Phylogenetic analyses place it as the earliest-diverging lineage of the Asiloidea + Eremoneura clade within Muscomorpha, providing a critical fossil calibration for estimating the crown age of Brachycera and refining the early diversification scenario. Exceptional preservation allows functional reconstruction of the mouthparts, corroborating specialized haematophagy in both sexes. This discovery reveals previously unknown ecological diversity among Mesozoic brachyceran flies and provides direct fossil evidence for multiple independent origins of haematophagy within Brachycera. Furthermore, evolutionary analyses of haematophagous brachycerans and their potential hosts indicate that Mesozoic blood-feeding lineages likely exploited different host resources from their modern descendants, suggesting a major host transition during the replacement of Mesozoic and modern ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149229284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revised phylogeny of Coccoidea using a comprehensive USCOs dataset (Hemiptera, Coccoidea).","authors":"Jiufeng Wei, Runqi Jiang, Boqun Liu, Longwei Liu, Dengen Fu, Minmin Niu, Yanhua Hu, Huaxi Liu, Edward Hughes, Qing Zhao, Wei Ji","doi":"10.1111/cla.70075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70075","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coccoidea (scale insects) are a hyperdiverse superfamily within Sternorrhyncha, inclusive of many of the world's most economically destructive agricultural pests. Despite their global significance, a robust phylogenetic framework for this group has yet to be established. This study provides the most comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of scale insects to date, incorporating 113 samples from 105 species, spanning 29 of 35 extant families. By utilizing Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (USCOs), we recovered the phylogenetic relationships within Coccoidea to the highest resolution so far to date, with high statistical support. Our results, consistent across all the reconstruction methods employed, provide strong evidence for Coccoidea being monophyletic. In agreement with earlier phylogenetic analyses, the neococcoids were confirmed to be a monophyletic group and the archaeococcoids a paraphyletic one; 7 of the 11 included archaeococcoid families (Xylococcidae, Qinococcidae, Margarodidae, Kuwaniidae, Marchalinidae, Coelostomidiidae and Monophlebidae) comprising the sister group to (Steingeliidae + (Putoidae + neococcoid lineages)). Matsucoccidae were recovered as the sister group to all others within the superfamily. This study also clarifies the placement of some families, particularly ones that are species-poor and have remained enigmatic.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149225268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-10-11DOI: 10.1111/cla.70071
Xuexue Wu, Yan Wang, Yanyi Chen, Lilian Eggers, Chao Xu, Fusheng Yang, Susana Arias Guerrero, Grace Flanagan, Sofie De Smedt, Qiang Wang
{"title":"Two novel tribes of Lamiaceae supported by phylogenomics and morphology.","authors":"Xuexue Wu, Yan Wang, Yanyi Chen, Lilian Eggers, Chao Xu, Fusheng Yang, Susana Arias Guerrero, Grace Flanagan, Sofie De Smedt, Qiang Wang","doi":"10.1111/cla.70071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70071","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plastome-based classifications recognize 12 subfamilies and 22 tribes within Lamiaceae. However, the deep phylogenetic relationships and tribal limits of Pogostemoneae sensu lato remain uncertain because nuclear phylogenomic investigations and assessments of cytonuclear discordance remain limited. We sampled all genera assigned to Pogostemoneae s.lat. and representatives of all recognized tribes of Lamiaceae. Transcriptome-based nuclear datasets and plastid datasets recover Lamioideae as monophyletic but Pogostemoneae s.lat. as non-monophyletic. Nuclear concatenation and coalescent analyses resolve three lineages: Pogostemoneae s.str. (six genera), Colebrookea and the Achyrospermum group, including Holocheila. We recircumscribe Pogostemoneae and describe Achyrospermeae and Colebrookeae as new tribes. At the tribal level, Pogostemoneae s.str. is distinguished by variable inflorescences and usually smooth, glossy nutlets; Achyrospermeae by frequent stellate tomentum, mostly dense spiciform inflorescences and usually dull, roughened or reticulate nutlets; and Colebrookeae by densely lanate-tomentose dioecious shrubs, strongly dimorphic flowers and accrescent fruiting calyces with elongate plumose teeth. Plastid trees usually recover the pogostemonoids as monophyletic, with conflict concentrated at the deepest backbone nodes. Conflict and gene flow analyses indicate pervasive incomplete lineage sorting, with localized introgression at specific nodes. Time-calibrated analyses date crown Lamioideae to the mid-Eocene (about 44 Ma), with major divergences near the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Speciation and net diversification rates increased towards the present across Lamioideae, without lineage-specific accelerations. These results provide a robust basis for revising the tribal classification in Lamioideae.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149168782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-10-07DOI: 10.1111/cla.70073
Wenqiang Zhang, Zhiyong Yang, Zhaoyi Li, Wayne P Maddison, Junxia Zhang
{"title":"Ultraconserved element phylogenomics reveals novel insights into the historical biogeography of euophryine jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae).","authors":"Wenqiang Zhang, Zhiyong Yang, Zhaoyi Li, Wayne P Maddison, Junxia Zhang","doi":"10.1111/cla.70073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70073","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Euophryini is one of the largest tribes of jumping spiders (Salticidae), with diverse morphology, ecology and behaviour, and is an important focus of systematic and evolutionary studies of jumping spiders. Notably, it is the only salticid tribe that has diversified nearly equally across both the Old and New Worlds, making its historical biogeography particularly intriguing. However, understanding its biogeography has been challenging without the application of phylogeny-based biogeographical analytical approaches. In this study, we obtained ultraconserved elements (UCEs) from 255 euophryine and 45 outgroup taxa. The UCE phylogenomics provided a reliable phylogenetic framework that strongly supports the monophyly of the tribe and the division of Euophryini into two major clades (Clades A and B). Clade A consists exclusively of Old World euophryines, while Clade B includes a radiation in the New World along with several Old World lineages. Temporal divergence analyses, utilizing known jumping spider fossils, suggest that most divergences of euophryines likely occurred post-Eocene. Biogeographical analyses indicate that Euophryini most likely originated in the Palaearctic and Indomalayan regions, followed by multiple dispersals between the Indomalayan and Australasian regions, the Palaearctic and Indomalayan regions, the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, and the Nearctic and Neotropical regions during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. In contrast to the previous view that early continental transitions between the Old and New World for Euophryini were facilitated by the Antarctic land bridge, our study supports the Neotropical radiation having dispersed from the Palaearctic through the Nearctic, rather than from the Australasian region via Antarctica. Findings from this study significantly enhance our understanding of the origin, and temporal and spatial divergence of euophryine jumping spiders.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149128668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-09-28DOI: 10.1111/cla.70068
Paweł Jałoszyński, Michel Perreau, Shûhei Yamamoto
{"title":"Phylogeny of Mastigitae sheds light on a hundred-million-year-long morphological stasis of the extant genus Clidicus Laporte (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae).","authors":"Paweł Jałoszyński, Michel Perreau, Shûhei Yamamoto","doi":"10.1111/cla.70068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70068","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mastigitae comprise 15 genera, of which seven are extinct, and species of two extant genera are also documented as fossils. The rich fossil record makes Mastigitae exceptional among Staphylinidae. Based on results of phylogenetic analyses comprising 33 extant species, 10 dated fossils and ~300 adult morphological characters, including structures visualized by synchrotron microtomography in mid-Cretaceous and Eocene specimens, we attempt to resolve the phylogeny of Mastigitae. The monophyly of Mastigitae and relationships of Leptomastacini + all remaining Mastigitae, Mastigini + †Baltostigini and Leptochromini + Clidicini are well-supported, but the tribal placement of †Palaeoleptochromus is inconclusive. Mesozoic fossils are unambiguously placed in the extant genus Clidicus, and an Eocene (Priabonian) fossil Clidicus europaeus sp. nov. is described. The evolution of this genus is one of the best morphologically documented examples of a long stasis among beetles. The results demonstrate a continuous existence of Clidicus in Eurasia dated from ~99 Ma, through ~36 Ma to the present time. We hypothesize that ecomorphological sets of structures of Clidicus, including the mouthparts, had reached a functional optimum at least ~100 Ma and then have been preserved in an unchanged form, likely by stabilizing selection in mesic habitats with an abundance of food sources.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149070592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
CladisticsPub Date : 2026-09-23DOI: 10.1111/cla.70067
Rolf Georg Beutel, Jakub Goczał, Di Li
{"title":"Larval character evolution in Holometabola (Insecta).","authors":"Rolf Georg Beutel, Jakub Goczał, Di Li","doi":"10.1111/cla.70067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.70067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Larvae, a novel type of immature stage, are a crucial innovation of the Holometabola. Larval features therefore provide key evidence for reconstructing evolutionary transformations in this megadiverse group. Here we present the first formal reconstruction of larval character evolution, using maximum parsimony and Bayesian ancestral-state reconstruction. Our analyses are based on an updated matrix of 88 larval characters and a phylogenetic topology assembled from published transcriptomic and phylogenomic studies. A series of key larval transformations is associated with the origin of Holometabola. That includes partial reductions of antennal and labial structures, simplification of the tarsus and developmental shifts in the appearance of compound eyes and wing buds. The reconstructed holometabolan groundplan larva was terrestrial and non-predaceous, with an orthognathous head, well-developed biting mouthparts, well-developed thoracic legs with an undivided tarsus, no abdominal appendages and a relatively slender postcephalic body. Within Holometabola, larval character support for major clades was highly uneven. Some lineages, especially Neuroptera, Strepsiptera, Vespina, Glossata and Brachycera, showed dense clusters of inferred transformations and distinctive larval apomorphies. In contrast, several major clades, including Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Mecopterida and Antliophora, were weakly supported or unsupported by larval synapomorphies, despite strong support from adult morphology in some cases. Major shifts in larval morphology were associated with ecological and functional transitions, including predation, parasitism, parasitoidism, phytophagy, aquatic habits, wood boring and development in moist substrates. Our results show a distinctive mosaic pattern in larval evolution in Holometabola, with major transformations largely restricted to some of the phylogenetic lineages and closely associated with key ecological transitions.</p>","PeriodicalId":50688,"journal":{"name":"Cladistics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149031919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}