Condicinae

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 : 18

Condicinae

We recovered a group that includes many of the ten, largely Nearctic, condicine genera recognized by Poole (1995) when he described the subfamily, but support values for the clade are low (BS = 38, SH = 75.6, UF = 74; Fig. 5). The limits of the Condicinae have been ill defined in that no morphological autapomorphies have been identified for the subfamily, or either of its two recognized tribes: Condicini and Leuconyctini . Poole’s Condicini genera ( Condica Walker, 1856 ; Homophoberia Morrison, 1875 ; Ogodoconta Butler, 1891) and Leuconyctini genera ( Diastema Guenée, 1852 ; Fotella Grote, 1882 ; and Leuconycta Hampson, 1909 ) that we were able to include are intermixed in accordance with the findings of Mitchell et al. (2006), suggesting that neither tribe is monophyletic as it is presently circumscribed ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010). Also grouped with these genera is the Palearctic condicine Acosmetia Stephens, 1829 ; the Palearctic Alvaradoia , which is currently recognized in Metoponiinae ; and the Noctuidae incertae sedis genus Hypoperigea Hampson, 1908 which spans East Africa, South Asia, and Australia. Mitchell et al. (2006) also found Hypoperigea to group with Condicinae , but did not transfer the genus to Condicinae . Acosmetia and Alvaradoia were strongly supported as sister to each other in our analyses (BS = 99, SH = 97, UF = 100). We were particularly interested in the placement of Acosmetia as we suspected it represented an unrecognized higher-level taxon in or near Condicinae . Because of the age of our specimen, we used a whole-genome sequencing approach to get sequence data for it. The larva of Alvaradoia disjecta (Rothschild, 1920) resembles that of condicine Diastema tigris Guenée, 1852 and the spinneret is reduced ( Beck 1999 –2000) as in other condicines. The European genus Mesotrosta Lederer, 1857 , which we were not able to include in our analysis, most likely belongs in Condicinae as well, as it was considered to be the sister genus of Alvaradoia by Fibiger et al. (2009).

Most interestingly, poorly supported as sister to the aforementioned group (BS = 19, SH = 79.3, UF = 55), we recovered a well-supported clade with representatives of Condicinae as well as a motley crew of other, supposedly unrelated generic-level taxa: Airamia Barnes & Benjamin, 1926 (Amphipyrinae) ; Aleptina Dyar,

1902 ( Condicinae ); Hemicephalis Möschler, 1890 ( Noctuidae incertae sedis); Neotarache Barnes & Benjamin, 1922 ( Eustrotiinae incertae sedis); and ‘ Plagiomimicus ’ navia (Harvey, 1875) (Stiriinae) (BS = 100, SH = 100, UF = 100). Keegan et al. (2019) transferred Aleptina into Condicinae , but overlooked the fact that Hemicephalis , although shown by Zahiri et al. (2013) to be within Condicinae , had not formally been transferred to Condicinae . All members of this clade, except the Neotropical Hemicephalis , are small, desertdwelling moths. Adults of this clade are surprisingly divergent in appearance—so much so that only three of the five taxa had been associated with one another, and none prior to Zahiri et al. (2013) had been associated with Condicinae . Aleptina and Hemicephalis , which formed a clade (BS = 73, SH = 81.5, UF = 75), respectively feed on Tiquilia Pers. and Cordia L. (both Boraginaceae ) as larvae ( Janzen and Hallwachs 2020, D.L.W. unpublished data). Sister to the clade of Aleptina and Hemicephalis is a well-supported clade containing Airamia , Neotarache , and ‘ Plagiomimicus’ navia (BS = 100, SH = 100, UF = 100). ‘Plagiomimicus’ navia has long been known to be misplaced in Plagiomimicus Grote, 1873 and Stiriinae, with Poole (1995) intentionally omitting ‘P’. navia from his treatment of Plagiomimicus and Stiriinae. Like Aleptina and Hemicephalis , the larva of ‘ Plagiomimicus’ navia feeds on Boraginaceae ( Nama L.) (D.L.W. unpublished data). The larvae of Airamia albiocula Barnes & Benjamin, 1926 and Neotarache deserticola Barnes & Benjamin, 1922 (the only species in their respective genera) are unknown, but the latter is typically found in or near dune systems, washes, and other sandy soils in southeastern California —habitats that are typical of Nama demissa A. Gray and few other plants. We defer providing tribal assignments for these condicines as it is our intention to do so in a subsequent paper that can include larval and life history data.