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A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution

Kristensen, Niels P. ; Hilton, Douglas J. ; Kallies, Axel ; Milla, Liz ; Rota, Jadranka LU orcid ; Wahlberg, Niklas LU ; Wilcox, Stephen A. ; Glatz, Richard V. ; Young, David A. and Cocking, Glenn , et al. (2015) In Systematic Entomology 40(1). p.5-16
Abstract

We report the first discovery since the 1970s of a new extant family (Aenigmatineidae fam.n.) of homoneurous moths, based on the small Aenigmatinea glatzella sp.n. from Kangaroo Island off southern Australia. It exhibits a combination of extraordinary anatomical characters, and, unlike most homoneurous moths, its larva is a conifer-feeder (stem mining in Callitris, Cupressaceae). While the adult's mouthparts are strongly regressed, evidence from other morphological characters and from a Bayesian analysis of 25 genetic loci convincingly places the taxon among Glossata ('tongue moths'). An unexpected tongue moth clade including Acanthopteroctetidae and Neopseustidae, suggested with low support in recent molecular analyses, remarkably... (More)

We report the first discovery since the 1970s of a new extant family (Aenigmatineidae fam.n.) of homoneurous moths, based on the small Aenigmatinea glatzella sp.n. from Kangaroo Island off southern Australia. It exhibits a combination of extraordinary anatomical characters, and, unlike most homoneurous moths, its larva is a conifer-feeder (stem mining in Callitris, Cupressaceae). While the adult's mouthparts are strongly regressed, evidence from other morphological characters and from a Bayesian analysis of 25 genetic loci convincingly places the taxon among Glossata ('tongue moths'). An unexpected tongue moth clade including Acanthopteroctetidae and Neopseustidae, suggested with low support in recent molecular analyses, remarkably becomes strongly supported when Aenigmatinea is included in the molecular analysis; the new taxon becomes subordinated in that clade (as sister group to Neopseustidae) and the clade itself appears as the sister group of all Heteroneura, representing the vast majority of all Lepidoptera. Including Aenigmatinea into the analysis thereby strengthens the surprising indication of non-monophyly of Myoglossata, and the new phylogeny requires an additional number of ad hoc assumptions of convergence/character reversals in early Lepidoptera evolution. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:44393B52-1889-431A-AB08-6BBCF8F946B8.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Systematic Entomology
volume
40
issue
1
pages
12 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:84920555860
ISSN
0307-6970
DOI
10.1111/syen.12115
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
fd28c597-5621-47ae-af1c-10c142e178cc
date added to LUP
2016-04-27 21:15:19
date last changed
2022-03-31 23:36:05
@article{fd28c597-5621-47ae-af1c-10c142e178cc,
  abstract     = {{<p>We report the first discovery since the 1970s of a new extant family (Aenigmatineidae fam.n.) of homoneurous moths, based on the small Aenigmatinea glatzella sp.n. from Kangaroo Island off southern Australia. It exhibits a combination of extraordinary anatomical characters, and, unlike most homoneurous moths, its larva is a conifer-feeder (stem mining in Callitris, Cupressaceae). While the adult's mouthparts are strongly regressed, evidence from other morphological characters and from a Bayesian analysis of 25 genetic loci convincingly places the taxon among Glossata ('tongue moths'). An unexpected tongue moth clade including Acanthopteroctetidae and Neopseustidae, suggested with low support in recent molecular analyses, remarkably becomes strongly supported when Aenigmatinea is included in the molecular analysis; the new taxon becomes subordinated in that clade (as sister group to Neopseustidae) and the clade itself appears as the sister group of all Heteroneura, representing the vast majority of all Lepidoptera. Including Aenigmatinea into the analysis thereby strengthens the surprising indication of non-monophyly of Myoglossata, and the new phylogeny requires an additional number of ad hoc assumptions of convergence/character reversals in early Lepidoptera evolution. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:44393B52-1889-431A-AB08-6BBCF8F946B8.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kristensen, Niels P. and Hilton, Douglas J. and Kallies, Axel and Milla, Liz and Rota, Jadranka and Wahlberg, Niklas and Wilcox, Stephen A. and Glatz, Richard V. and Young, David A. and Cocking, Glenn and Edwards, Ted and Gibbs, George W. and Halsey, Mike}},
  issn         = {{0307-6970}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{5--16}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Systematic Entomology}},
  title        = {{A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/syen.12115}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/syen.12115}},
  volume       = {{40}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}