We herein constructed a phylogeny of Lepidoptera synthesizing multiple information types, a phylogenomics backbone, a multigene supermatrix with species‐comprehensive DNA barcodes, and topological information from a compiled database of standardized machine‐readable trees from over 100 previous studies. We then applied the new phylogenetic synthesis as a profiling framework for a large DNA barcode dataset of caterpillars from...

The phylum Acanthocephala is a ubiquitous group of zooparasites, with major socio‐economic importance. The true diversity of the Acanthocephala is obscured by the phenomena of cryptic speciation and a large degree of intraspecific variation. In this study we describe an example of extreme phenotypic variation in neck morphology. The pomphorhynchid acanthocephalans, Longicollum pagrosomi and Pomphorhynchus zhoushanensis were or...

The taxonomic status and interspecies relationships of hares (genus Lepus ) in Xinjiang, China, remain ambiguous owing to extremely similar external morphologies, introgressive hybridization between species and a lack of molecular genetic records. In this study, a total of 154 hare specimens were used to clarify their taxonomic status. Based on multiple lines of evidence, including observations and comparisons of external morp...

The Asian flea beetles Altica cirsicola , Altica fragariae and Altica viridicyanea are broadly sympatric and morphologically highly similar but feed on distantly related host plants. They have been suggested as a model for ecological speciation studies. However, their phylogeny and species limits remain uncertain. In this study, we added mitochondrial genomes from multiple individuals of each species to the growing database. P...

The alterations in the phylogeographical structures of insects in response to the uplift of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and the Quaternary glaciations in eastern Asia, particularly in northern China, remain largely unknown. In this study, we selected Apocheima cinerarius , a moth with flightless females, using molecular data (complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear data) and ecological niche modelling ( ENM ) to investigate t...