Molecular phylogeny of the plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae) and the evolution of feeding habits

The first comprehensive cladistic analysis of Miridae, the plant bugs, is presented based on analysis of 3935 base pairs of mitochondrial (16S, COI) and nuclear (18S, 28SD3) DNA for 91 taxa in seven subfamilies. Data were analysed using maximum likelihood (ML), parsimony and Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic frameworks. The phylogenetic results are compared with previous hypotheses of higher relationships in the family using alternative hypothesis tests. A Bayesian relaxed molecular clock is used to examine divergence times, and ancestral feeding habits are reconstructed using parsimony and a Bayesian approach. Clades recovered in all analyses are as follows: Cimicomorpha, Miroidea and Miridae; Bryocorinae: Bryocorini; Stenodemini; Mirinae; Deraeocorinae (Clevinemini + Deraeocorini); Cylapinae; Isometopinae; Bryocorinae: Dicyphini; Orthotylini; Phylinae (Phylini + Pilophorini), and Phylinae as sister group to all the remaining mirid taxa. These results are largely congruent with former hypotheses based on morphological data with respect to the monophyly of various subfamilies and tribes; however, our results indicate that the subfamily Bryocorinae is not monophyletic, as the two tribes, Dicypini and Bryocorini, were separated in the phylogenetic results. Divergence time estimates indicate that the radiation of the Miridae began in the Permian; most genus-level radiations within subfamilies began in the late Cretaceous, probably in response to the angiosperm radiation. Ancestral feeding state reconstructions based on Bayesian and parsimony inference were largely congruent and both reconstructed phytophagy as the ancestral state of the Miridae. Furthermore, the feeding habits of the common ancestors of Mirinae + Deraeocorinae, Bryocorinae + Cylapinae + Isometopinae + Orthotylinae, and the remaining taxa excluding Phylinae, were inferred as phytophagous. Therefore, at least three shifts from phytophagy or polyphagy to predation occurred within the Miridae. Additionally, based on the mirid host-plant records, we discovered several trends, such as a strong relationship between host-plant ranges and a facultative feeding habit. © The Willi Hennig Society 2011.