Author(s): Wei, C.-H., Kun, A. & Yen, S.-H.
Title: A preliminary analyses of the phylogeny of the Ethmiinae moths (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea) with special reference to the evolutionary patterns of host use
Year: 2007
Volume: 53
Pages: 61-100.
Abstract: The subfamily Ethmiinae is a microlepidopteran group comprising more than 350 species in seven genera worldwide. The core genus Ethmia comprises 47 species-groups and many species unassigned to species groups. Their hostplant associations involve at least seven angiosperm families, of which Boraginaceae is utilized by the majority of the species. We attempted to reconstruct the phylogeny of the Ethmiinae to elucidate if the high diversity of Ethmia correlates with colonization on Boraginaceae. We first selected 52 Ethmia species having hostplant records to represent 21 of the 47 species-groups and used Orophia, Depressaria, Agonopterix, Chrysethmia and Agrioceros as the outgroups. Seventy six adult morphological characters were identified and were partitioned into two subsets, non-colour patterns versus colour pattern, to detect the impact of colour pattern characters on the phylogenetic structure. We employed maximum parsimony method to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of the Ethmiinae and found that neither the genus Ethmia nor most species-groups proposed by previous authors are monophyletic. The characters relevant to colour patterns produced significant effects on the tree topology, although the wing patterns may not be involved in mimicry. Optimalization of host associations reveals that the clades using Hydrophylaceae, Rosaceae, Phytolaccaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Ranunculaceae, and Malvaceae have evolved independently from the clade using Boraginaceae.
Keywords: Ethmiinae, phylogeny, hosplant, wing pattern
Journal: Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Journal abbreviation:
ISSN: 1217-8837
Publisher: Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest
Editor(s): Bakonyi, G., Mahunka, S., Papp, L., Báldi, A., Csuzdi, Cs., Forró, L. & Bálint, Zs.
