Phylogeny of bagworms (Lepidoptera: Psychidae): A preliminary result from anchored hybrid enrichment data

Bagworm moths (Psychidae) are a family of approximately 1,350 moth species that are distributed worldwide and grouped into 13 subfamilies and 300 genera. Adult bagworms are unusual in the animal kingdom in that they display a remarkable range of sexual dimorphism and sexual reproduction. Over half of the known species have adult females that are brachypterous or apterous (i.e., lacking wings), and some species have vermiform adult females that also lack legs, eyes, antennae, and mouthparts, whereas adult males possess “normal” characteristics. The neotenic females never leave their silk cases, and in these species, the female calls the male, and the male inserts its telescopic abdomen into the case to mate. This extreme sexual dimorphism in bagworms has resulted in some of the most bizarre life history traits found among insects. Despite their unusual life history and potential as a model system for evolutionary genetics, a robust phylogenetic framework of Psychidae is lacking, and the relationships between European, African, and New-World species remain largely unknown. As such, major relationships of higher psychid clades are not firmly established. In this work, a preliminary AHE tree which contains 57 psychid species across 8 subfamilies was reconstructed. The monophyletic relationships of most subfamilies were confirmed, with several exceptions such as Psychinae and Naryciinae. The newly generated result is by far the most robust phylogeny tree of the family Psychidae, providing a backbone for further discussion on various biological topics.