Cerurinae
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.1093/isd/ixad004 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E247440E-C803-3616-FCF0-FB8F0083FD68 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Cerurinae |
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Cerurinae View in CoL View at ENA Food Plants and Global Temperature
Cerurinae View in CoL are nearly entirely oligophagous on Salicaceae View in CoL , a plant family which originated much earlier than Notodontidae View in CoL in the Mesozoic ( Li et al. 2019, de Mestier et al. 2022). Most molecular phylogenies that include Salicaceae View in CoL do not sample densely across the family, with available research examining specific clades or genera ( de Mestier et al. 2022, Wang et al. 2022) or the parent order, Malpighiales View in CoL , with limited Salicaceae View in CoL sampling (Xi et al. 2012, Cai et al. 2020). Li et al. (2019) however, did examine the timing of divergence based on plastid genomes and sampled 18 genera across Salicaceae View in CoL . There is also some disagreement as to what constitutes Salicaceae View in CoL sensu stricto, with the relevant studies differing on the inclusion of Casearia View in CoL , which is consistently found to be sister to all or most other Salicaceae View in CoL (Xi et al. 2012, Li et al. 2019, Cai et al. 2020, de Mestier et al. 2022). However, based on what is known at this point, Salicaceae View in CoL had a Cretaceous origin, with stem ages reported as 102.08–86.05 Ma in de Mestier et al. (2022), ~93 Ma in Li et al. (2019), and 78.7–59.8 Ma in Xi et al. (2012). Regardless of whether or not Salicaceae View in CoL includes Casearia View in CoL and some other debated lineages, the crown age of Salicaceae View in CoL excluding these taxa still antedates the crown of Cerurinae View in CoL by some 20–30 My (65.1–51.3 Ma in Xi et al. (2012)). Based on these ages, the Salicaceae View in CoL biogeography reconstruction in de Mestier et al. (2022), and our own biogeographic reconstruction of Cerurinae View in CoL , Salicaceae View in CoL had already colonized much of the globe by the time Cerurinae View in CoL arose.
Within Salicaceae View in CoL , there is not a clear affinity for a single clade or genus of plants. For example, the ‘derived’ Asian cerurine genus Neocerura View in CoL is known to feed on Casearia View in CoL in the Old World Tropics
( de Mestier et al. 2022), but in the Americas where Casearia are most species-rich, only two feeding records exist. Janzen and Hallwachs (2017) report two instances of Americerura rarata on Laetia thamnia L., but the genus Laetia was recently synonymized with Casearia and phylogenetic evidence supports the synonymy ( Samarakoon and Alford 2019, de Mestier et al. 2022). Extensive searching for caterpillars on Casearia spp. by the first author has not revealed the presence of any cerurines despite their abundance on nearby Salicaceae genera Xylosma and Banara (St Laurent pers. obs.). Casearia is one of the most ancient lineages of Salicaceae , and originated in the Neotropics ~10 million years before the origin of Cerurinae in Africa ( de Mestier et al. 2022). In the Northern Hemisphere, relatively unrelated but sympatric Cerurinae clades (e.g., Cerura and Furcula in the Palearctic; Americerura and Furcula in the Nearctic) feed on Salix and Populus , the two primary, and often only, Salicaceae genera found in temperate regions (Wang et al. 2022). There are also cases of non-Salicaceae feeding by Furcula borealis (on Rosaceae ) and F. bicuspis (Betulaceae) in these areas. In the tropics, where Salix and Populus are not major components of forests, cerurines feed on a wide range of other Salicaceae genera from the various accepted Salicaceae subfamilies: Azara , Banara , Casearia (= Laetia ), Hasseltia , and Xylosma in the New World tropics and Casearia , Dovyalis E.Mey. ex Arn. , Homalium Jacq. , Flacourtia Comm. ex L’Hér. , Scolopia Schreb. , Trimeria Harv. , and Idesia Maxim. in the Old World tropics ( Kroon 1999, Schintlmeister 2008, 2020, Chandra et al. 2018). The fidelity to Salicaceae is nearly universal among Cerurinae , but utilization of specific food plants appears to be opportunistic with respect to local availability of Salicaceae species rather than a distinct pattern of coevolution. This fact that Salicaceae appear to have antedated Cerurinae supports the scenario that Cerurinae dispersed around the globe opportunistically due to the widespread availability of Salicaceae food sources. Yet another indication of opportunistic feeding on Salicaceae by Cerurinae can be found in South America, where there are reports of several Americerura feeding on introduced, ornamental Salix species ( Biezanko et al. 1974). The single native Salix in the region ( S. humboldtiana Willd. ), is a host of A. annulifera (St Laurent pers. obs.), similar to how A. scitiscripta feed on various Salix and Populus in North America, where other genera of Salicaceae are absent.
As inferred from our GeoSSE analyses, Cerurinae turnover rates are highest in temperate regions with an anagenetic impact of temperature on turnover (Table S7). This suggests that while Cerurinae had a tropical African origin, and clearly are present in most tropical regions, their ability to diversify in temperate regions may explain their relatively high extant diversity in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the observed effect of range (defined as either widespread or restricted to temperate/ tropical climates) on net diversification is anagenetic, and so could be explained by local extirpation of widespread species over time rather than cladogenesis explicitly being the precursor of temperature specialization. The clade containing Americerura (mostly tropical), Cerura (mostly temperate), and Kamalia (mostly tropical) exemplify this scenario well, in that they had a widespread ancestor but regional specialization, possibly due to extirpation, leading to three climate-limited genera.
As shown by our food plant ASR ( Fig. S11 View Fig ), the ancestral caterpillar feeding condition was unequivocally on Salicaceae , with rare instances of recently divergent feeding behavior. And while there is evidence that temperature has impacted Cerurinae diversification, the nearly uniform extant and ancestral Salicaceae-feeding in this group supports the hypothesis that, conversely, food plant shifts on the scale of plant family did not impact diversification. This latter point is important because food plant shifts and ability to colonize new plants has been a central tenet in attempts to understand Lepidoptera diversification dynamics ( Janz et al. 2006, Ebel et al. 2015, Fagua et al. 2017, Sahoo et al. 2017, Strutzenberger et al. 2017, Braga et al. 2018, Kergoat et al. 2018, Bruzzese et al. 2019, Toussaint et al. 2019, Allio et al. 2021, St Laurent et al. 2021). We also do not consider food plant shifts within Salicaceae to be a major factor driving cerurine diversity since the larvae of this group tend not to specialize, and essentially feed on any available Salicaceae (see our earlier discussion about tropical Cerurinae feeding preferences). Cerurinae are physiologically adaptable, given the range of latitudes and habitats they occupy and their species richness in the temperate regions. To further understand the mechanisms by which Cerurinae so successfully spread across the planet, future research might investigate the chemical ecology of Salicaceae feeding and how cerurine detoxification of foods may have allowed them to utilize an abundant, but chemically defended group of food plants. Such a pathway may have been paved by an ancient adaptation to feeding on Salicaceae in Africa, deep in the Oligocene, that led a curious group of insects with familiar ‘faces’ and whip-like ‘tails,’ all over the world.
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Cerurinae
| St Laurent, Ryan A., Goldstein, Paul Z., Miller, James S., Markee, Amanda, Staude, Hermann S., Kawahara, Akito Y., Miller, Scott E. & Robbins, Robert K. 2023 |
Neocerura
| Matsumura 1929 |