A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Geometridae (Lepidoptera) with a focus on enigmatic small subfamilies
Author
Murillo-Ramos, Leidys
Author
Brehm, Gunnar
Author
Sihvonen, Pasi
Author
Hausmann, Axel
Author
Holm, Sille
Author
Ghanavi, Hamid Reza
Author
Õunap, Erki
Author
Truuverk, Andro
Author
Staude, Hermann
Author
Friedrich, Egbert
Author
Tammaru, Toomas
Author
Wahlberg, Niklas
text
PeerJ
2019
2019-08-27
7
1
39
journal article
10.7717/peerj.7386
41ff7b58-5204-42ec-b85a-75a6904af370
PMC6716565
31523494
5767530
Geometrinae
Stephens, 1829
The monophyly of
Geometrinae
is strongly supported, but the number of tribes included in this subfamily is still unclear.
Sihvonen
et al. (2011)
analyzed 27 species assigned to 11 tribes, followed by
Ban et al. (2018)
with 116 species in 12 tribes.
Ban et al. (2018)
synonymized nine tribes, and validated the monophyly of 12 tribes, with two new tribes Ornithospilini and Agathiini being the first two clades branching off the main lineage of
Geometrinae
. Our study (168 species) validates the monophyly of 13 tribes, eleven of which were defined in previous studies:
Hemitheini
,
Dysphaniini
,
Pseudoterpnini
s.str.
, Ornithospilini, Agathiini,
Aracimini
,
Neohipparchini
, Timandromorphini,
Geometrini
, Comibaeini,
Nemoriini
. One synonymization is proposed:
Synchlorini Ferguson, 1969
syn. nov.
is synonymized with
Nemoriini Gumppenberg, 1887
. One tribe is proposed as new:
Chlorodontoperini
trib. nov.
, and one tribe (
Archaeobalbini Viidalepp, 1981
,
stat. rev.
) is raised from synonymy with
Pseudoterpnini
.
Ban et al. (2018)
found that
Ornithospila
Warren, 1894
is sister to the rest of
Geometrinae
, and
Agathia
Guenée, 1858
is sister to the rest of
Geometrinae
minus
Ornithospila
. Although weakly supported, our results (with more species of
Agathia
sampled) placed Ornisthospilini+Agathiini together and these tribes are the sister to the rest of
Geometrinae
.
Chlorodontopera
is placed as an isolated lineage as shown by
Ban et al. (2018)
. Given that
Chlorodontopera
clearly forms an independent and well-supported lineage we propose the description of a new tribe
Chlorodontoperini
.