New insights into the tribal‐level phylogeny and historical biogeography of Iassinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) revealed by phylogenomics

Iassinae is a large, globally distributed subfamily of mostly arboreal leafhoppers whose monophyly and tribal‐level relationships have long been debated. In the first phylogenomic analysis of this group, we applied concatenated maximum likelihood and coalescent gene tree methods to 673 anchored‐hybrid loci representing 12 previously recognized tribes. This yielded well‐resolved phylogenies with strong support for the previous tribal classification proposed based on combined analyses of morphological data and DNA sequences from three gene regions while recovering slightly different inter‐tribal relationships with stronger overall branch support. Iassinae sensu stricto was consistently recovered as monophyletic with maximum support, but, consistent with some other recent analyses, the Neotropical tribes Bythoniini and Hoplojassini did not group with other Iassinae. Divergence time estimates and biogeographic analyses indicate that the Iassinae crown group originated in Gondwana (Neotropical + Australasian) during the Middle Jurassic (~160 Ma) and that the earliest divergences among major lineages of Iassinae were likely driven by Gondwanan vicariance, followed by more recent episodes of long‐distance dispersal and colonisation. Most tribes of Iassinae appeared during the angiosperm radiation or the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution. During this interval, warm climates and rapidly diversifying floras likely provided ample ecological opportunities for Iassinae to diversify and spread to all major zoogeographic regions.