Amphipyrinae (Edwards, 1996)

Keegan, Kevin L., Rota, Jadranka, Zahiri, Reza, Zilli, Alberto, Wahlberg, Niklas, Schmidt, B. Christian, Lafontaine, J. Donald, Goldstein, Paul Z. & Wagner, David L., 2021, Toward a Stable Global Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) Taxonomy, Insect Systematics and Diversity (AIFB) 5 (3), pp. 1-24 : 17

Amphipyrinae

Unlike in Keegan et al. (2019), we found Amphipyrinae to be well supported in both our RAxML and IQ-TREE analyses (BS = 83, SH = 99.8, UF = 100; Fig. 4 ). We also found stronger support for the monophyly of both tribes Amphipyrini and Psaphidini than found in Keegan et al. with the clade containing Emarginea Guenée, 1852 and Feralia Grote, 1874 sister to the rest of the Psaphidini (BS = 40, SH = 79, UF = 79)—not sister to the Amphipyrini as in Keegan et al. (2019). Both tribes would be monophyletic in our analyses if not for Amphipyra effusa Boisduval, 1829 , which groups inside Psaphidini . Amphipyra effusa is a Palearctic moth, which had been treated in its own Genus, Adpyramidcampa Beck, 1991 ( Beck 1991, 1996), before this genus was synonymized with Amphipyra Ochsenheimer, 1816 by Fibiger and Hacker (2007). Beck (1996) placed Adpyramidcampa near Feralia on the basis of larval and genitalic characters, which Fibiger and Hacker (2007) interpreted as being modifications of apomorphies of Amphipyra and thus synonymized Adpyramidcampa (and other related genera like Pyrois Hübner, 1820 ) with Amphipyra . As the placement of A. effusa is not well supported, we do not suggest a reassignment, without further morphological study or sequence data.

We have sequenced nearly all Amphipyrinae genera from North America and Europe. Of the 22 Amphipyrinae genera from around the world (including Australian ‘ Acronictinae /Amphipyrinae’) that we newly included in this study, only four of the genera grouped in Amphipyrinae ( Apsaphida Franclemont, 1973 ; Asteroscopus Boisduval, 1828 ; Diphtherocome Warren, 1907 ; Pseudocopivaleria Buckett & Bauer, 1966 ). Many more putative Amphipyrinae genera remain to be sequenced from elsewhere in the world, especially from the Australian fauna where the taxonomic limits of Amphipyrinae are both exceedingly broad and ill defined—there is little doubt that across the world the subfamily retains many genera belonging in other subfamilies.

Figures

Fig. 4. Continuation of maximum-likelihood tree inferred by RAxML analysis.