Using novel loci to form a preliminary phylogeny of fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

Fireflies are famous for their adult and larval bioluminescence. The main purpose of this luminescence is its use in mate recognition, thus the evolution of their visual systems is also of great interest. Fireflies have been well studied phylogenetically using morphological data, yet a major limitation of the few molecular studies for the group has been the use of a limited number of molecular markers and a taxon sampling isolated to the new world. This research employs transcriptomes from the eyes of three species of firefly to take a closer look at opsin gene evolution and to identify novel molecular markers to estimate a very preliminary, yet broad, phylogeny of fireflies.