Sphenarches, AND

Alipanah, Helen, Gielis, Cees, Sari, Alireza, Sarafrazi, Alimorad & Manzari, Shahab, 2011, Phylogenetic relationships in the tribe Oxyptilini (Lepidoptera, Pterophoridae, Pterophorinae) based on morphological data of adults, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (2), pp. 484-547 : 519-520

SPHENARCHES AND GEINA

After the description of the genus Sphenarches by Meyrick (1886), its position changed several times. It was moved from the Oxyptilus generic group ( Adamczewski, 1951) to the subfamily Platyptiliinae ( Yano, 1963b) , then to Oxyptilini ( Arenberger, 2002) , and Platyptiliini ( Gielis, 2003) . The results of the present study confirm Arenberger’s (2002) idea for this old genus to be included in Oxyptilini , and as stated by him, the common stalk of veins R1 and R 2 in the fore wing, can separate Sphenarches from the remaining genera ( Intercapperia , Geina , Paracapperia , Procapperia , Capperia , Oxyptilus , and Crombrugghia ) of this group. Moreover, the signum is absent in the bursa copulatrix of all Sphenarches species. The examined Sphenarches species share one synapomorphic character (common stalks of veins R1 with R2, and R3 with R 4 in the fore wing). There is also one character in the female genitalia (emerging point of the ductus bursae at the base of the cone-shaped folded area, on a separate cone-shaped folded area) which is present in all of them. However, as the female of Sphenarches bilineatus was not available, this character was treated as missing for this species. All of the examined species of this genus closely resemble each other, except S. bilineatus . The low values of tree confidence for the Sphenarches group may indicate the heterogeneous nature of this genus. The remaining non-examined species, Sphenarches caffer and S. cafferoides , seem to be different from the examined species especially in the genitalia characteristics. Therefore, a revision of the species included in this genus is suggested.

The two genera Sphenarches and Geina were found to be sister groups in both the EW and SAW-RI-based analyses. Adamczewski (1951) suggested that Geina derived from the ancestral Sphenarches in the first half of the Tertiary. He also stated that the Geina – Sphenarches group is one of the smaller groups of the Oxyptilus generic group. A close relationship of Sphenarches ontario and two Geina species ( Geina periscelidactyla and G. sheppardi ) was revealed by B. Landry (1989) based upon the similarity in wing colour and some male and female genital characters. Both synapomorphic characters recovered here for the Sphenarches – Geina group (characters 90 and 95) are also related to the male genitalia.

In both the EW and SAW-RI-based analyses, the Sphenarches – Geina group is a sister group of the clade composed of all Capperia , Procapperia , Paracapperia , Intercapperia , and Eucapperia species (clade U, Fig. 16 ). However, there was no synapomorphy to support the monophyly of the clade included of all these genera (clade R, Fig. 16 ). In all the species of the latter clade, except Sphenarches bilineatus and Eucapperia bullifera , there is a sclerotized structure inside the bulbus ejaculatorius of the aedeagus (111: 1). This character was not clearly visible in E. bullifera and the male of S. bilineatus was not available for study. However, if they have the same characteristic, this homoplastic character could be a common feature of all the included species. Compared to the remaining genera of clade R, Geina and Sphenarches are older evolutionary forms and less specialized ( Adamczewski, 1951), hence their sister group relationship was expected. The affinity of Geina with the other members of the Oxyptilus generic group was first proved by Adamczewski (1951). Also, Gielis (1993) in his phylogenetic survey of the family Pterophoridae , revealed a close relationship between Geina and three genera Capperia , Paracapperia , and Procapperia . Here, the same result was obtained after excluding Sphenarches from the analysis. The genus Procapperia , and later Capperia derived from Sphenarches in the Tertiary and Pleistocene ( Adamczewski, 1951); therefore, the alliance of these genera was predictable. A close relationship of four genera, i.e. Oxyptilus , Crombrugghia , Capperia , and Sphenarches , based on the fore and hind wing foldings has also been shown by Wasserthal (1974).

Figures

Figure 16. Strict consensus trees of six equally most parsimonious trees obtained in the initial analysis using equally weighed characters. Numbers below the branches show Bremer support values and the capital letters show the clades included in Oxyptilini and are discussed in the text. Tree length = 943, consistency index = 0.4549, retention index = 0.7976.