@article {529,
	title = {Hierarchical analysis of variation in the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene among Hymenoptera.},
	journal = {Molecular biology and evolution},
	volume = {15},
	year = {1998},
	pages = {1728-1743},
	abstract = {Nucleotide sequences from a 434-bp region of the 16S rRNA gene were analyzed for 65 taxa of Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, parasitoid wasps, sawflies) to examine the patterns of variation within the gene fragment and the taxonomic levels for which it shows maximum utility in phylogeny estimation. A hierarchical approach was adopted in the study through comparison of levels of sequence variation among taxa at different taxonomic levels. As previously reported for many holometabolous insects, the 16S data reported here for Hymenoptera are highly AT-rich and exhibit strong site-to-site variation in substitution rate. More precise estimates of the shape parameter (alpha) of the gamma distribution and the proportion of invariant sites were obtained in this study by employing a reference phylogeny and utilizing maximum-likelihood estimation. The effectiveness of this approach to recovering expected phylogenies of selected hymenopteran taxa has been tested against the use of maximum parsimony. This study finds that the 16S gene is most informative for phylogenetic analysis at two different levels: among closely related species or populations, and among tribes, subfamilies, and families. Maximization of the phylogenetic signal extracted from the 16S gene at higher taxonomic levels may require consideration of the base composition bias and the site-to-site rate variation in a maximum-likelihood framework.},
	keywords = {16S, 16S: genetics, Animals, Base Sequence, DNA, evolution, Genetic Variation, Hymenoptera, Hymenoptera: classification, Hymenoptera: genetics, Mitochondrial, Mitochondrial: chemistry, Mitochondrial: genetics, Molecular, Molecular Sequence Data, Nucleic Acid Conformation, phylogeny, Ribosomal, Ribosomal: chemistry, Ribosomal: genetics, RNA, Wasps, Wasps: classification, Wasps: genetics},
	author = {Whitfield, J.B. and Cameron, S.A.}
}
@article {524,
	title = {Comparative mitogenomics of Braconidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) and the phylogenetic utility of mitochondrial genomes with special reference to Holometabolous insects.},
	journal = {BMC genomics},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2010},
	pages = {371},
	abstract = {Animal mitochondrial genomes are potential models for molecular evolution and markers for phylogenetic and population studies. Previous research has shown interesting features in hymenopteran mitochondrial genomes. Here, we conducted a comparative study of mitochondrial genomes of the family Braconidae, one of the largest families of Hymenoptera, and assessed the utility of mitochondrial genomic data for phylogenetic inference at three different hierarchical levels, i.e., Braconidae, Hymenoptera, and Holometabola.},
	keywords = {Animals, AT Rich Sequence, AT Rich Sequence: genetics, Base Composition, Base Sequence, Evolution, Molecular, Gene Rearrangement, Gene Rearrangement: genetics, Genome, Mitochondrial, Genome, Mitochondrial: genetics, Genomics, Hymenoptera, Hymenoptera: genetics, Male, Molecular Sequence Data, phylogeny},
	author = {Wei, Shu-jun and Shi, M. and Sharkey, M.J. and Achterberg, C. van and Chen, X.-X.}
}
@article {394,
	title = {Phylogeny of the parasitic microgastroid subfamilies (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) based on sequence data from seven genes, with an improved time estimate of the origin of the lineage.},
	journal = {Molecular phylogenetics and evolution},
	volume = {47},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {378-395},
	abstract = {The microgastroid complex of braconid wasps is a widely recognized and biologically coherent lineage of endoparasitoids of lepidopteran larvae (caterpillars). The complex has received significant phylogenetic attention in recent years due in part to the taxons{\textquoteright} association with mutualistic polydnaviruses, with which they compromise host immune systems. A number of previous attempts using a variety of morphological and molecular approaches have not unequivocally resolved relationships amongst the main subfamilies. This work represents a more extensive attempt to resolve the microgastroid relationships, using seven genes (16S rRNA, cytochrome oxidase I (CO1), 28S rRNA, arginine kinase (ArgK), long wavelength rhodopsin (Ops), elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1a) and wingless (Wg)) and a greater taxonomic representation. Bayesian, likelihood and parsimony phylogenetic reconstructions of this improved data set has determined that the chelonines diverged first from the remainder of the microgastroids, however the relationships amongst the other subfamilies are still unclear, suggesting a greater nucleotide sample is required to resolve them. Examination of the contribution of individual gene trees to the phylogeny demonstrates why the relationships between subfamilies are still unclear, with not all groups monophyletic for all trees. Filtered supernetworks demonstrate that monophyly of all subfamilies is only recovered when splits found in only one or two genes are excluded, but this also results in little remaining structure left in the deep nodes to resolve inter-subfamily relationships. By increasing the breadth of the study we were also able to re-evaluate previous attempts at dating the lineage and, therefore the origin of the polydnavirus association. Previous attempts used a much reduced data set and fewer fossil calibrations. Thorough literature searches have revealed a substantial increase in the fossil calibrations and these, combined with more sophisticated molecular dating analysis, have substantially increased the age of the microgastroid lineage from previous estimates of approximately 73MYA to approximately 100MYA. Examination of the resultant linearized clock tree also allows an insight into the evolution of the more species rich subfamilies. The chelonines appear to have had a steady rate of evolution, whilst the microgastrines and cardiochilines appear to have undergone a more significant "burst" of evolution. It is hypothesized that the different parasitism strategies of subfamilies (Chelonines are egg parasitoids and the remainder are larval parasitioids) may have influenced the evolutionary rates of the groups.},
	keywords = {Animals, Base Sequence, DNA Primers, Hymenoptera, Hymenoptera: classification, Hymenoptera: genetics, Likelihood Functions, phylogeny},
	author = {Murphy, Nicholas and Banks, J.C. and Whitfield, J.B. and Austin, A.D.}
}
