Isoscella St Laurent & Carvalho, 2017b

Laurent, Ryan A. St & Kawahara, Akito Y., 2019, Reclassification of the Sack-bearer Moths (Lepidoptera, Mimallonoidea, Mimallonidae), ZooKeys 815, pp. 1-114 : 33-34

Isoscella St Laurent & Carvalho, 2017b Figs 38, 73, 157, 158; Suppl. material 3: Plate 5

Type species.

Perophora ventana Dognin, 1897.

Diagnosis.

Isoscella can be recognized by the following combination of characters: narrow, triangular wings with single ovoid (or more circular in some species) discal hyaline patch. The similar genus Roelmana always has broader, less elongated wings, and may lack hyaline patches entirely.

Apomorphies.

(1) Gnathos rectangular with mesal pair of thin, parallel arms equal in length to lateral bars of gnathos (Fig. 38a); (2) Vincular arms thick, not thin and tusk-like, in most species arms dorsally covered in setae (Fig. 38b); (3) Shorter, secondary pair of setae covered plate-like vincular arms located on either side of phallus (Fig. 38c).

Remarks.

In our morphological phylogenetic analyses Isoscella and the related Roelmana below, were poorly differentiated phylogenetically due to strong morphological similarity between these two genera. However, Roelmana , which displays more interspecific variation than within Isoscella (see below) was strongly supported as a monophyletic group in St Laurent et al. (2018a), as well as in ongoing molecular phylogenetics that continues to sample more Roelmana species. These molecular phylogenetic studies include the several morphologically distinct species-groups of Roelmana , which formed a clade sister to Isoscella . The most morphologically divergent Isoscella species, I. andina St Laurent and Carvalho, was not sequenced, but was included in our morphological analyses. This unique species is nested within Isoscella in all analyses except the constrained ML analysis (Fig. 1), rendering Isoscella paraphyletic in that analysis. We consider the placement of this taxon as sister to all Cicinnini in this analysis anomalous considering the presence of all generic Isoscella apomorphies in I. andina . The observed placement in Fig. 1 may be due to certain aspects of patterning (e.g., complete, straight ventral forewing postmedial lines in I. andina ) which are unique to this species, whereas genitalia are typical of Isoscella . Therefore, based on the unconstrained analysis, we consider Isoscella to represent a monophyletic lineage, whose relationship to species of Roelmana will likely be more clearly elucidated with denser taxon sampling in our future molecular work.