Epidesmiinae Murillo-Ramos, Brehm & Sihvonen, 2019

Murillo-Ramos, Leidys, Brehm, Gunnar, Sihvonen, Pasi, Hausmann, Axel, Holm, Sille, Ghanavi, Hamid Reza, Õunap, Erki, Truuverk, Andro, Staude, Hermann, Friedrich, Egbert, Tammaru, Toomas & Wahlberg, Niklas, 2019, A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Geometridae (Lepidoptera) with a focus on enigmatic small subfamilies, PeerJ 7, pp. 1-39 : 22

Epidesmiinae Murillo-Ramos, Brehm & Sihvonen newsubfamily

LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:34D1E8F7-99F1-4914-8E12-0110459C2040

Type genus: Epidesmia Duncan & Westwood, 1841 .

Material examined: Taxa included in the molecular phylogeny: Ecphyas holopsara Turner, 1929 , Systatica xanthastis Lower, 1894 , Adeixis griseata Hudson, 1903 , Dichromodes indicataria Walker, 1866 , Phrixocomes sp. Turner, 1930 , Abraxaphantes perampla Swinhoe, 1890 , Epidesmia chilonaria (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855) , Phrataria replicataria Walker, 1866 .

Most of the slender-bodied Oenochrominae , excluded from Oenochrominae s.str. by Holloway (1996), were recovered as an independent lineage ( Fig. 4 ) that consists of two clades: Ec. holopsara + S. xanthastis and Ep. chilonaria + five other genera. Branch support values from IQ-TREE strongly support the monophyly of this clade (SH-like and UFBoot2 = 100), while in RAxML the clade is moderately supported (RBS = 89).

These genera have earlier been assigned to Oenochrominae s.l. ( Scoble & Edwards, 1990). However, we recovered the group as a well-supported lineage independent from Oenochrominae s.str. and transfer them to Epidesmiinae , subfam. n. ( Table 2).

Phylogenetic position: Epidesmiinae is sister to Oenochrominae s.str. + Eumelea + Geometrinae + Ennominae .

Short description of Epidesmiinae : Antennae in males unipectinate (exception: Adeixis ), shorter towards the apex. Pectination moderate or long. Thorax and abdomen slender (unlike in Oenochrominae ). Forewings with sinuous postmedial line and areole present. Forewings planiform (with wings lying flat on the substrate) in resting position, held like a triangle and cover the hindwings.

Diagnosis of Epidesmiinae : The genera included in this subfamily form a strongly supported clade with DNA sequence data from the following gene regions (exemplar Epidesmia chilonaria (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855)) ArgK ( MK738299 ), Ca-ATPase ( MK738690 ), CAD ( MK738960 ), COI ( MK739187 ), EF1a ( MK740168 ), GAPDH ( MK740402 ), MDH ( MK740974 ) and Nex9 ( MK741433 ). Athorough morphological investigation of the subfamily, including diagnostic characters, is under preparation.

Distribution: Most genera are distributed in the Australian region, with some species ranging into the Oriental region. Abraxaphantes occurs exclusively in the Oriental region.

Figures

Figure 4 Phylogenetic relationships of the subfamilies Archierinae, Desmobathrinae, Epidesmiinae subfam. nov., Oenochrominae. Numbers above branches are SH-aLRT support (%)/ultrafast bootstrap support, UFBoot2(%), for nodes to the right of the numbers. Values of SH ≥ 80 and UFBoot2 ≥ 95 indicate well-supported clades (Trifinopoulos & Minh, 2018). Taxonomic changes are indicated by a symobolized arrow>. *Formal taxonomic treatment will be dealt with in P. Sihvonen et al., 2019, unpublished data. Full-size DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7386/fig-4