Palaeosetidae (Common, 1990)

Grehan, John R. & Mielke, Carlos G. C., 2018, Evolutionary biogeography and tectonic history of the ghost moth families Hepialidae, Mnesarchaeidae, and Palaeosetidae in the Southwest Pacific (Lepidoptera: Exoporia), Zootaxa 4415 (2), pp. 243-275 : 254

(5) Palaeosetidae in the Southwest Pacific

This family is only marginally represented in the Southwest Pacific by Palaeoses , endemic to the coastal region of Queensland in northeastern Australia ( Fig. 3 ). The remaining genera of this family are Ogygioses in Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, Genustes in Assam, India, and Osrhoes in Colombia ( Davis et al. 1995; Kristensen & Nielsen 1994; Owada & Jinbo 2005). The monophyly of Palaeosetidae appears to be well supported, although relationships among the genera are not resolved. Palaeoses occupies a basal position in a preferred tree ( Simonsen & Kristensen (2017) which would be contrary to the expectations of this genus being a ‘derivative’ of an Asian ancestor. It is consistent with vicariance of a widespread ancestor involving the New and Old Worlds where the initial phylogenetic break occurred in northeastern Australia, making Palaeoses basal to a group that is trans- Pacific (i.e. is centered on both sides of the Pacific basin and absent from Africa). As with the Mnesarchaeidae , the vicariance event may have been influenced by formation and development of the large silicic province in the Mesozoic before expansion of East Gondwana into the Pacific.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Global distribution range of Exoporia families: Hepialidae (dotted outline), Mnesarchaeidae (solid outline), Palaeosetidae (stars), Neotheoridae (circles), Prototheoridae (shaded), and Anomosetidae (open star in northeastern Australia).