Diacrotricha, AND

Alipanah, Helen, Gielis, Cees, Sari, Alireza, Sarafrazi, Alimorad & Manzari, Shahab, 2011, Phylogenetic relationships in the tribe Oxyptilini (Lepidoptera, Pterophoridae, Pterophorinae) based on morphological data of adults, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (2), pp. 484-547 : 528

DIACROTRICHA AND COSMOCLOSTIS

The two genera Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis were considered as members of Trichoptilini by Arenberger (2002), but in both the EW and SAW-RI-based analyses here they were recovered within Pterophorini ( Figs 16 , 17 ). The same result was obtained by Gielis (1993). However, the clade Pterophorini , compared to the strong support for the clade including Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis , was weakly supported ( Figs 16 , 17 ). These two genera differ from all members of Oxyptilini by having one row of venous scales, instead of two, on the underside of the hind wing. This homoplastic character is also present in Wheeleria phlomidis , Merrifieldia malacodactylus , and Agdistis huemeri . In both Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis , the fore wing has one radial vein. This character is also present in W. phlomidis . As revealed here, in both Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis , the scales on the ventral side of the first labial palpus segment are elongated and some of them are hairlike. The same feature is present in Emmelina monodactyla and the two examined species of Hellinsia . Moreover, the valvae in Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis are asymmetrical, which is the same in the members of Oidaematophorini, Pterophorini , and Agdistinae . If we consider Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis to be members of Pterophorini , the presence of two veins in the third lobe of the hind wing is not a synapomorphy for Pterophorini and Oidaematophorini, because this character is absent in these genera.

The examined Diacrotricha and Cosmoclostis species in Arenberger’s (2002) study ( Diacrotricha fasciola , D. lanceata , Cosmoclostis auxileuca , and C. pesseuta ) were separated from each other based on the presence or absence of longitudinal continuous lines on the dorsal surface of the abdomen by Arenberger (2002), i.e. the presence of this feature in Diacrotricha species. However, these lines were not observed in the two members of this genus examined in the current study. According to Meyrick (1886), in Cosmoclostis , the length of the terminal segment of the labial palpus is equal to the length of the second one, whereas in both examined Cosmoclostis species this was found to be longer. Fletcher (1947) stated that blotches on the dorsal surface of the abdomen in Cosmoclostis brachybela and C. pesseuta were whitish, but the examined material of both species showed silvery-white blotches. It is quite likely that the differences observed in these three characters are a result of intraspecific variation.

Diacrotricha lanceata comes close to the examined Cosmoclostis species based on the following characters: the wing shape and pattern (characters 10, 11, 18, 24, 25, 30, 31, and 32), as well as some characters in the head (characters 51 and 52), thorax (character 61), male genitalia (characters 90, 95, 96, 97, 98, 108, 113, 114, 117, 139, and 140) and female genitalia (characters 146, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, and 163). This species was recovered with C. brachybela and C. pesseuta as a monophyletic clade in both the EW and SAW analyses with high values of tree confidence ( Figs 16 , 17 ). Four synapomorphic characters supported the monophyly of the clade: nearly beakshaped uncus (90: 3), flap-like gnathos arms (98: 1), tubular anellus (114: 3), and the sclerotization of anellus towards the uncus (117: 1). For these reasons, D. lanceata is here transferred to the genus Cosmoclostis (see nomenclature changes below), which will be the only Palaearctic species of the genus.

Both Agdistis species from the subfamily Agdistinae , which were used as outgroups, were not recovered in the same clade ( Fig. 16 ). This subfamily only includes the genus Agdistis with more than 100 species ( Gielis, 2003, 2006; Alipanah & Ustjuzhanin, 2006; Arenberger, 2006; Altermatt, 2008; Gielis & Karsholt, 2009) and it seems probable that the species included in this genus belong to several distinct genera.

Figures

Figure 16. Strict consensus trees of six equally most parsimonious trees obtained in the initial analysis using equally weighed characters. Numbers below the branches show Bremer support values and the capital letters show the clades included in Oxyptilini and are discussed in the text. Tree length = 943, consistency index = 0.4549, retention index = 0.7976.

Figure 17. Strict consensus trees of six equally most parsimonious trees obtained in the equally weighted analysis (left), and that of 380 most parsimonious trees obtained from successive approximation weighting based on maximum retention index values (right). Numbers above and below (underlined) the branches show bootstrap and jackknife values, respectively.