Comparative Mitogenomic Analysis of Two Cuckoo Bees (Apoidea: Anthophila: Megachilidae) with Phylogenetic Implications

Influence of social lifestyles on host-microbe symbioses in the bees

Microbiomes are increasingly recognised as critical for the health of an organism. In eusocial insect societies, frequent social interactions allow for high-fidelity transmission of microbes across generations, leading to closer host-microbe coevolution. The microbial communities of bees with other social lifestyles are less studied, and few comparisons have been made between taxa that vary in social structure. To address this gap, we leveraged a cloud-computing resource and publicly available transcriptomic data to conduct a survey of microbial diversity in bee samples from a variety of social lifestyles and taxa. We consistently recover the core microbes of well-studied corbiculate bees, supporting this method's ability to accurately characterise microbial communities. We find that the bacterial communities of bees are influenced by host location, phylogeny and social lifestyle, although no clear effect was found for fungal or viral microbial communities. Bee genera with more complex societies tend to harbour more diverse microbes, with Wolbachia detected more commonly in solitary tribes. We present a description of the microbiota of Euglossine bees and find that they do not share the "corbiculate core" microbiome. Notably, we find that bacteria with known anti-pathogenic properties are present across social bee genera, suggesting that symbioses that enhance host immunity are important with higher sociality. Our approach provides an inexpensive means of exploring microbiomes of a given taxa and identifying avenues for further research. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationships between bees and their associated microbial communities, highlighting the importance of considering microbiome dynamics in investigations of bee health.

The complete mitogenome of Anaplectoides virens (Butler, 1878) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and phylogenetic analysis

Anaplectoides virens (Noctuoidea: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous herbivorous moth, which feeds on a wide variety of crops. Molecular phylogenetic studies of this species are still limited. We presented the first complete mitochondrial genome of the genus Anaplectoides, which was assembled from data generated using a genome skimming method. The assembled mitogenome is 15,358 bp in length and consists of 37 genes, including 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNAs, 22 tRNAs, and a control region. Except for the start codon of cox1 with CGA, other coding genes use ATN as the start codon. Most PCGs use TAA as the stop codon; however, cox1, cox2, and nad4 use T as the termination codon. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the genera of ((Agrotis + Striacosta) + Anaplectoides) within Noctuinae formed a monophyletic group. Among Noctuidae, the relationship of ((Noctuinae + Hadninae) + Amphipyrinae) was also highly supported.

The complete mitogenome of Halictus (Seladonia) aerarius (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) and phylogenetic analysis

The Halictidae, where the Seladonia aeraria belongs, was an important model organism for studying the evolution of insect social behavior. We first sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Seladonia aeraria. The mitogenome was 15, 410 bp in length, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a hypothetical control region. In order to reveal the phylogenetic position of Seladonia aeraria form mitogenomic level, we performed phylogenetic analysis of 13 PCGs from 15 species. The results revealed that the genus-level relationship of Halictidae was Seladonia + Lasioglossum and Seladonia aeraria was more closely related to Seladonia tumulorum than Lasioglossum sp. SJW_2017. The complete mitogenome of S. aeraria will provide a basis for further study evolution and phylogenetic analysis of Halictidae.