Robber or assassin flies (Asilidae) are a diverse family of venomous predators. The most recent classification organizes Asilidae into 14 subfamilies based on a morphological phylogeny, but many of these are not supported by molecular data. To test the monophyly of various clades in Asilidae, we used the recently developed Diptera-wide ultraconserved element bait set to compile seven datasets comprising 151 robber flies and 145–2496 loci. We also compared the performance of various nodal support metrics. Our Maximum Likelihood phylogeny was fully resolved and well supported, but partially incongruent with the coalescent phylogeny. Further examination of datasets suggested that GC bias had influenced gene tree inference and subsequent species tree analyses. The subfamilies Brachyrhopalinae, Dasypogoninae, Dioctriinae, Stenopogoninae, Tillobromatinae, Trigonomiminae and Willistonininae were not recovered as monophyletic. The inter-subfamily relationships are summarized as follows: Laphriinae and Dioctriinae (in part) successively sister to the remaining subfamilies, which form two clades: the first consists of a grade of Stenopogoninae (in part), Willistonininae (in part), Bathypogoninae+Phellinae, Stichopogoninae, Leptogastrinae, Ommatiinae and Asilinae; the second clade consists of a paraphyletic assemblage of genera from Dioctriinae (in part), Trigonomiminae, Stenopogoninae (in part), Tillobromatinae, Brachyrhopalinae and Dasypogoninae. This phylogeny demonstrates that the higher classification of Asilidae is far from settled, but does provide a much-needed foundation for a thorough revision of the subfamily classification.

One of the most important non-Apis groups of bees for agriculture is the mason bee subgenus Osmia Panzer (Osmia), or Osmia s.s. (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Out of the 29 known species, four have been developed as managed pollinators of orchards. In addition, the group is important as a source of non-native pollinators, given that several species have been introduced into new areas. Osmia s.s. occurs naturally throughout the northern temperate zone with greatest species richness in Europe and Asia. Here, we integrate phylogenomic data from ultraconserved elements (UCEs), near complete taxon sampling, and a diversity of analytical approaches to infer the phylogeny, divergence times and biogeographic history of Osmia s.s. We also demonstrate how mitochondrial sequence data can be extracted from ultraconserved element data and combined with sequences from public repositories in order to test the phylogeny, examine species boundaries and identify specimen-associated, non-bee DNA. We resolve the phylogeny of Osmia s.s. and show strong support that Nearctic Osmia ribifloris is the sister group to the rest of the subgenus. Biogeographic analyses indicate that the group originated during the Late Miocene in the West Nearctic plus East Palearctic region following dispersal from the East Palearctic to the West Nearctic across the Bering land bridge prior to its closure 5.5–4.8 Ma. The mitochondrial DNA results reveal potential taxonomic synonymies involving Osmia yanbianensis and Osmia opima, and Osmia rufina, Osmia rufinoides and Osmia taurus.

PREMISE Recent, rapid radiations present a challenge for phylogenetic reconstruction. Fast successive speciation events typically lead to low sequence divergence and poorly resolved relationships with standard phylogenetic markers. Target sequence capture of many independent nuclear loci has the potential to improve phylogenetic resolution for rapid radiations. METHODS Here we applied target sequence capture with 353 protein-coding genes (Angiosperms353 bait kit) to Veronica sect. Hebe (common name hebe) to determine its utility for improving the phylogenetic resolution of rapid radiations. Veronica section Hebe originated 5–10 million years ago in New Zealand, forming a monophyletic radiation of ca 130 extant species. RESULTS We obtained approximately 150 kbp of 353 protein-coding exons and an additional 200 kbp of flanking noncoding sequences for each of 77 hebe and two outgroup species. When comparing coding, noncoding, and combined data sets, we found that the latter provided the best overall phylogenetic resolution. While some deep nodes in the radiation remained unresolved, our phylogeny provided broad and often improved support for subclades identified by both morphology and standard markers in previous studies. Gene-tree discordance was nonetheless widespread, indicating that additional methods are needed to disentangle fully the history of the radiation. CONCLUSIONS Phylogenomic target capture data sets both increase phylogenetic signal and deliver new insights into the complex evolutionary history of rapid radiations as compared with traditional markers. Improving methods to resolve remaining discordance among loci from target sequence capture is now important to facilitate the further study of rapid radiations.