Low-Coverage Whole Genomes Reveal the Higher Phylogeny of Green Lacewings

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Green lacewings (Chrysopidae) are one of the most commonly observed natural predators belonging to Neuroptera. They are widely distributed all over the world. The relationships among the three subfamilies of Chrysopidae have been controversial for a long time. We newly sequenced and analyzed the low-coverage genomes of five species (Apochrysa matsumurae, Chrysopa pallens, Chrysoperla furcifera, Italochrysa pardalina, Nothochrysa sinica), representing all three subfamilies, in order to reconstruct the higher phylogeny within this family. Our results suggested that Chrysopinae are a monophyletic sister group to the branch Apochrysinae + Nothochrysinae, and that Chrysopinae diverged from Apochrysinae + Nothochrysinae during the Early Cretaceous period (144–151 Ma), while Aporchrysinae diverged from Nothochrysinae around 117–133 Ma. ABSTRACT: Green lacewings are one of the largest families within Neuroptera and are widely distributed all over the world. Many species within this group are important natural predators that are widely used for the biological control of pests in agricultural ecosystems. Several proposed phylogenetic relationships among the three subfamilies of Chrysopidae have been extensively debated. To further understand the higher phylogeny as well as the evolutionary history of Chrysopidae, we newly sequenced and analyzed the low-coverage genomes of 5 species (Apochrysa matsumurae, Chrysopa pallens, Chrysoperla furcifera, Italochrysa pardalina, Nothochrysa sinica), representing 3 subfamilies of Chrysopidae. There are 2213 orthologs selected to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic reconstruction was performed using both concatenation and coalescent-based approaches, based on different data matrices. All the results suggested that Chrysopinae were a monophyletic sister group to the branch Apochrysinae + Nothochrysinae. These results were completely supported, except by the concatenation analyses of the nt data matrix, which suggested that Apochrysinae were a sister group to Chrysopinae + Nothchrysinae. The different topology from the nt data matrix may have been caused by the limited sampling of Chrysopidae. The divergence time showed that Chrysopinae diverged from Apochrysinae + Nothochrysinae during the Early Cretaceous period (144–151 Ma), while Aporchrysinae diverged from Nothochrysinae around 117–133 Ma. These results will improve our understanding of the higher phylogeny of Chrysopidae and lay a foundation for the utilization of natural predators.