Taxon Relation Assembly of Cladogram and Evolution (TRACE) of Lepidoptera species in Luzon, Philippines

Since characters are the basic units used to formalize homology hypotheses for all phylogenetic analyses, the characterization of observations into characters is of utmost importance in systematics. Relationships are now increasingly based on the analysis of character data sets with clearly defined structures. Furthermore, phylogenetic trees are constructed using cladistic methods in contemporary phylogenetics directly from morphological and molecular data. The researchers' objective in writing this lab report is to choose five (5) taxa—five insects, specifically Zizina otis, Leptosia nina, Amata huebneri, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis, and Taractrocera luzonensis—that they studied in laboratory activity #1 to act as the ingroup. Whereas Ceratina lieftincki was selected as the outgroup. As a result, the five selected taxa's five characters and character states were obtained by the researchers. The students' understanding of taxa, character selection, phylogenetic hypotheses, outgroup selection, character matrix construction, and implications of phylogenetic analysis are all objectives of this lab activity. Additionally, the researchers constructed at least three dichotomously branching cladograms using their data matrix. Character states from ancestral to derived states (or from ancestral, intermediate to derived states) were discovered to be homologous among the taxa in order to ensure that the taxa are objectively placed in the correct position within the cladogram. Symplesiomorphic and/or synapomorphic characters revealed monophyletic groupings after the appropriate placements were made. Furthermore, according to the phylogenetic theory, the most ancestral taxon, T3 (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis), retained more plesiomorphic traits similar to those of the outgroup, while T5 (Amata huebneri), which mimics wasps, is the most recently evolved taxon.