The Character States Analysis and Cladogram Construction of Selected Lepidoptera and Orthoptera Taxa and its  Implications in Insect Biodiversity and Conservation

Phylogenetics enables the determination of evolutionary relationships between organisms through cladistics assumptions. In this laboratory activity, five taxa from Order Lepidoptera and one taxon from Order Orthoptera were treated as the ingroup and outgroup, respectively, and examined for their character states. These character states are then arranged and tabulated into a character matrix to construct the cladogram.

Two phylogenetic hypotheses were set based on the available organized data. Symplesiomorphic character traits were exhibited by both the ingroup and outgroup species, while synapomorphic character states formed two monophyletic groups within the ingroup. These results verified the phylogenetic hypotheses priorly made. The implications of the phylogenetic analysis on biodiversity and conservation were also discussed, heavily emphasizing the role of phylogenetics in the formation of biodiversity and conservation efforts of insects.