CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The insects known as Hemiptera are not a particularly glamorous bunch. This group includes stink bugs, bed bugs, litter bugs, scale insects and aphids. Their closest relatives are thrips, bark lice and parasitic lice. But with a massive number of species, two-thirds of which are still unknown to science, these insects together make up one of the twiggiest branches on the tree of life.
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences collected a vast amount of molecular data on these insects and used the information to help tease out their family relationships and evolutionary history. The findings – and the data, which are now publicly available – will aid future research into some of the most abundant and economically important insects on the planet, the researchers said.
Read the full story from the University of Illinois News Bureau here.