  Species tree estimation from multi-locus datasets is statistically
challenging for multiple reasons, including gene tree heterogeneity across the
genome due to incomplete lineage sorting (ILS). Species tree estimation methods
have been developed that operate by estimating gene trees and then using those
gene trees to estimate the species tree. Several of these methods (e.g.,
ASTRAL, ASTRID, and NJst) are provably statistically consistent under the
multi-species coalescent (MSC) model, provided that the gene trees are
estimated correctly, and there is no missing data. Recently, Nute et al. (BMC
Genomics 2018) addressed the question of whether these methods remain
statistically consistent under random models of taxon deletion, and asserted
that they do so. Here we provide a counterexample to one of these theorems, and
establish that ASTRID and NJst are not statistically consistent under an i.i.d.
model of taxon deletion.
