Dissecting the Pandora’s box: preliminary phylogenomic insights into the internal and external relationships of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)

Abstract

Abstract Stink bugs are invaluable models for macroevolutionary investigations owing to their astonishing ecological and morphological diversity. Nevertheless, such studies have been hampered by the absence of a solid phylogenetic hypothesis. Morphological and molecular studies based on Sanger data have found no consensus for the position of Pentatomidae, and the deep relationships within the family have been poorly resolved. These persistent uncertainties have cast the systematics of stink bugs into the metaphorical realm of a Pandora’s Box. Here, I conduct the first phylogenomic study focusing on pentatomids. Using public data, I aimed at testing the power of genome-scale data to resolve phylogenetic relationships within the family and to address the controversial position of the family within Pentatomoidea. Based on a dataset of 40 taxa and over 1,900 proteins, my results indicate the Pentatomidae as the sister group of all remaining families of Pentatomoidea, with an uncertainty of whether Plataspididae is included in this clade. Within Pentatomidae, my analyses confirm some previous findings, such as the monophyly of Asopinae and the relationship between Nezarini and Antestiini. On the other hand, most of the deep relationships within the family were strikingly different from previous works, for example, the Podopinae as the sister group of the Paleartic Carpocorini. My analyses confirm that the addition of massive amounts of data to phylogenetic studies may help achieve better supported trees for the stink bugs and allies. I argue that a solid and stable phylogeny-based classification will only be achieved with increased employment of -omics data.