Using UCEs to resolve phylogenetic relationships in the Hydrophilid subfamily Enochrinae

Enochrinae was described as a subfamily of Hydrophilidae, the water scavenger beetles, in 2013 and consists of the moderately large genus Enochrus (~200 species) and several smaller genera. The relationships among these genera remain unresolved and it is also unclear if Enochrus, as it currently stands, represents a monophyletic lineage. Gaining a clearer understanding of how enochrine genera are related will subsequently allow us to explore interesting biogeographic and evolutionary patterns within the subfamily and make comparisons with other hydrophilid subfamilies and groups of aquatic beetles. Here we use an ultraconserved element dataset with representative sampling across all putative enochrine genera to reconstruct the first genome-scale molecular phylogeny of Enochrinae and address these questions. This phylogeny represents a robust and useful framework which researchers can use to address questions pertaining to the evolution of habitat preferences, and morphological and behavioral traits, among others, within the subfamily.