Phylogenomics and historical biogeography of the cosmopolitan velvet ant tribe Trogaspidiini (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae).

We investigated the phylogeny and historical biogeography of the cosmopolitan velvet ant tribe Trogaspidiini (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae: Mutillinae) using ultraconserved element (UCE) data. Thirty-six of forty-five described trogaspidiine genera and subgenera were represented by 95 ingroup species, and the monophyly of the New World genus Timulla Ashmead, 1899 was tested using 40 species. Maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses were conducted on an aligned dataset of 1 148 582 characters. Trogaspidiini was recovered as polyphyletic, with Dolichomutilla Ashmead, 1899 placed in Mutillini. Timulla was recovered as monophyletic and sister to a clade of Ethiopian and Oriental trogaspidiines. The Trogaspidia complex and Trogaspidia Ashmead, 1899 (sensu Nonveiller) were recovered as polyphyletic. The five non-nominate subgenera of Trogaspidia are therefore elevated to genus rank: Acutitropidia Nonveiller, 1995, Arcuatotropidia Nonveiller, 1995, Chilotropidia Nonveiller, 1995, Inflatispidia Nonveiller, 1995, and Lobotropidia Nonveiller, 1995, all new status. Oriental species currently placed in Trogaspidia are considered misclassified. Ancestral area analyses suggest an early diversification of Trogaspidiini in the Ethiopian region with repeated exchange between Ethiopian and Oriental regions. Timulla is estimated to have an Ethiopian or Oriental ancestor, with Neotropical North America as the possible ancestral range within the New World.