Beetles constitute the most biodiverse animal order with over 380 000 described species and possibly several million more yet unnamed. Recent phylogenomic studies have arrived at considerably incongruent topologies and widely varying estimates of divergence dates for major beetle clades. Here, we use a dataset of 68 single-copy nuclear protein-coding (NPC) genes sampling 129 out of the 193 recognized extant families as well as the first comprehensive set of fully justified fossil calibrations to recover a refined timescale of beetle evolution. Using phylogenetic methods that counter the effects of compositional and rate heterogeneity, we recover a topology congruent with morphological studies, which we use, combined with other recent phylogenomic studies, to propose several formal changes in the classification of Coleoptera: Scirtiformia and Scirtoidea sensu nov ., Clambiformia ser. nov. and Clamboidea sensu nov. , Rhinorhipiformia ser. nov ., Byrrhoidea sensu nov. , Dryopoidea stat. res. , Nosodendriformia ser. nov. and Staphyliniformia sensu nov ., and Erotyloidea stat. nov ., Nitiduloidea stat. nov . and Cucujoidea sensu nov., alongside changes below the superfamily level. Our divergence time analyses recovered a late Carboniferous origin of Coleoptera, a late Palaeozoic origin of all modern beetle suborders and a Triassic–Jurassic origin of most extant families, while fundamental divergences within beetle phylogeny did not coincide with the hypothesis of a Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution.

The honey bee is a crucial pollinator of agricultural crops and also an economically important producer of commodities such as honey and beeswax that find diverse uses in the food industry, cosmetics and medicine. At present, the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor is viewed as the most damaging pest of the honey bee worldwide. Without treatment, colonies generally collapse within a few years. To keep the population of the Varroa mites low, beekeepers relay on the use of synthetic and organic acaricides, the most popular commercially available ones include amitraz, coumaphos, flumethrin, fluvalinate, formic acid, oxalic acid and thymol. These conventional acaricides are cheap and easy to apply, but prolonged use causes Varroa mites to rapidly develop resistance and bee products can become contaminated. Residues of acaricides are present in high concentrations throughout the hive and bees are exposed to them all year around. The present review summarises the current knowledge of the deleterious effects of conventional acaricides on honey bee health. Numerous commercially available acaricides and their active substances have been shown to have negative effects on honey bee brood development, queen and drone reproductive health, learning, longevity and colony strength. Acaricides do not only act alone, but also in synergic combinations to affect bee health. Since some drugs cause substantial weakening of bee colonies, they can make them more susceptible to other diseases such as nosematosis or to extreme climatic events. As wax combs are contaminated with high concentrations of acaricide residues and Varroa mites are chronically exposed to them, the parasite may develop resistance faster. In combination with other stressors, acaricides could be a contributing factor to colony collapses.Key words: synthetic acaricides; varroacides; honey bee; Apis mellifera; synergy; organic beekeeping VPLIV UMETNIH IN NARAVNIH AKARICIDOV NA ZDRAVJE MEDONOSNIH ČEBELPovzetek: Čebele so pomemben opraševalec kmetijskih pridelkov in gospodarsko pomemben proizvajalec izdelkov, kot sta med in vosek, ki se uporabljajo v živilski industriji, kozmetiki in medicini. Trenutno je zunanji zajedavec pršica varoja (Varroa destructor) eden največjih škodljivcev za čebele v svetu. Brez zdravljenja čebelje družine napadene z varojo večinoma propadejo v nekaj letih. Za ohranjanje nizke populacije pršic varoj čebelarji uporabljajo umetne in naravne akaricide. Najbolj priljubljeni, komercialno dostopni, so amitraz, kumafos, flumetrin, fluvalinat, mravljinčna kislina, oksalna kislina in timol. Ti akaricidi so dokaj poceni in enostavni za uporabo, vendar podaljšana uporaba povzroča hitro razvijanje odpornosti pri pršicah varoja in večjo možnost onesnaženja čebeljih pridelkov. Ostanki akaricidov so po zdravljenju lahko prisotni v visokih koncentracijah v celotnem panju in so jim čebele izpostavljene celo leto. Po uporabi je tudi satje pogosto onesnaženo z visokimi koncentracijami ostankov akaricidov, ki so jim pršice varoja kronično izpostavljene in lahko zaradi tega hitreje razvijejo odpornost. Pregledni članek povzema trenutno znanje o škodljivih učinkih konvencionalnih akaricidov na zdravje čebel. Dokazano je, da imajo številni komercialno dostopni akaricidi in njihove aktivne snovi negativne učinke na razvoj čebel, vplivajo na razmnoževalno sposobnost čebelje matice in zmanjšujejo sposobnost učenja čebel ter dolgoživost in moč kolonije. Akaricidi ne delujejo samo kot posamezne učinkovine, ampak tudi sinergistično, kar lahko dodatno slabo vpliva na zdravje čebelje družine. Nekatera zdravila lahko povzročijo znatno oslabitev čebeljih družin, lahko pa jih tudi naredijo bolj dovzetne za druge bolezni, kot je nozemavost, ali bolj občutljive na slabe vremenske razmere. V kombinaciji z drugimi stresorji lahko akaricidi prispevajo k propadu čebelje družine.Ključne besede: umetni akaricidi; varoicidi; čebela; Apis mellifera; sinergija; ekološko čebelarjenje

The megadiverse subfamily Staphylininae traditionally belonged to the best-defined rove beetle taxa, but the advent of molecular phylogenetics in the last decade has brought turbulent changes to the group’s classification. Here, we reevaluate the internal relationships among the tribes of Staphylininae by implementing tree inference methods that suppress common sources of systematic error. In congruence with morphological data, and in contrast to some previous phylogenetic studies, we unambiguously recover Staphylininae and Paederinae as monophyletic in the traditional sense. We show that the recently proposed subfamily Platyprosopinae (Arrowinus and Platyprosopus) is a phylogenetic artefact and reinstate Arrowinus as a member of Arrowinini stat. res. and Platyprosopus as a member of Platyprosopini stat. res. We show that several recent changes to the internal classification of the subfamily are phylogenetically unjustified and systematically unnecessary. We, therefore, reestablish Platyprosopini, Staphylinini, and Xantholinini as tribes within Staphylininae (all stat. res.) and recognize Coomaniini as a tribe (stat. nov.) rather than subfamily. Consequently, the traditional ranks of the subtribes Acylophorina, Afroquediina, Amblyopinina, Antimerina, †Baltognathina, Cyrtoquediina, Erichsoniina, Hyptiomina, Indoquediina, Quediina, and Tanygnathinina are restored (all stat. res.). We review the current classification of Staphylininae and discuss sources of incongruence in multigene phylogenies.

Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) are one of the most important pollinators of agricultural crops and wild plants. Despite the growth in the availability of sequence data for honey bees, the phylogeny of the species remains a subject of controversy. Most notably, the geographic origin of honey bees is uncertain, as are the relationships among its constituent lineages and subspecies. We aim to infer the evolutionary and biogeographical history of the honey bee from mitochondrial genomes. Here we analyse the full mitochondrial genomes of 18A. melliferasubspecies, belonging to all major lineages, using a range of gene sampling strategies and inference models to identify factors that may have contributed to the recovery of incongruent results in previous studies. Our analyses support a northern African or Middle Eastern origin ofA. mellifera. We show that the previously suggested European and Afrotropical cradles of honey bees are the result of phylogenetic error. Monophyly of the M, C, and O lineages is strongly supported, but the A lineage appears paraphyletic.A. melliferacolonised Europe through at least two pathways, across the Strait of Gibraltar and via Asia Minor.

Fleas (Siphonaptera) are medically important blood-feeding insects responsible for spreading pathogens such as plague, murine typhus, and myxomatosis. The peculiar morphology of fleas resulting from their specialised ectoparasitic lifestyle has meant that the phylogenetic position of this diverse and medically important group has remained one of the most persistent problems in insect evolution. Here we test competing hypotheses on the contentious evolutionary relationships of fleas and antliophoran insects using the largest molecular dataset available to date consisting of over 1,400 protein-coding genes, and a smaller mitogenome and Sanger sequence alignment of 16 genes. By removing ambiguously aligned sequence regions and using site-heterogeneous models, we consistently recover fleas nested within scorpionflies (Mecoptera) as sister to the relictual southern hemisphere family Nannochoristidae. Topology tests accounting for compositional heterogeneity strongly favour the proposed topology over previous hypotheses of antliophoran relationships. This clade is diagnosed by shared morphological characters of the head and sperm pump. Fleas may no longer be regarded as a separate insect order and we propose that Siphonaptera should be treated as an infraorder within Mecoptera, reducing the number of extant holometabolan insect orders to ten.