Abstract: The D2 variable region of 28S ribosomal RNA was sequenced from ethanol preserved specimens or obtained from the literature to provide the first molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of this subfamily. Evolutionary relationships were investigated by comparing the results using three different analysis methods (distance-based neighbor-joining, NJ; maximum parsimony, MP; and maximum likelihood, ML) and three different outgroups. The monophyly of the Rogadinae s.s. is well supported by all trees generated from molecular data. The morphologically defined tribes and the relationships within the subfamily are partially resolved. We found no evidence for a monophyletic Rogadini lineage, neither for the morphological subtribe division within the tribe, but we did find some evidence for three other tribes. Among the genera of Rogadini our results show strong support for the paraphyly of this group. It can be divided into two clades, one consisting of Aleiodes+Arcaleiodes, the other of Canalirogas+Conspinaria+Spinaria+Rogas. The clade Aleiodes+Arcaleiodes was constantly resolved using different outgroups with all Aleiodes species forming a monophyletic group. Two distinct clades are found within Aleiodes, strongly corresponding to the morphologically defined subgeneric divisions of the genus. For the clade Canalirogas+Conspinaria+Spinaria+Rogas, we found only limited support for this clade to be a monophyletic group. We did not find any support for the genus Spinaria to receive subtribe rank. The tribe Clinocentrini is well supported in our analyses, and probably occupy a basal position in the phylogeny of the subfamily. We also found two well-supported clades containing the genera Yelicones and Stiropius, corresponding to the tribes Yeliconini and Stiropiini, respectively, which were well defined by morphological data, but the placement of these two clades within the phylogeny of the subfamily is poorly resolved in this study.

Key words: Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rogadinae, 28S rRNA, molecular phylogeny