Cuculliinae

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 : 14

Cuculliinae

We added the Nearctic cuculliine genus Dolocucullia Poole, 1995 to the dataset of Keegan et al. (2019) and found it well supported in Cuculliinae —along with the European genus Allophyes Tams, 1942 , which is currently recognized in Amphipyrinae (BS = 100, SH = 100, UF = 100; Fig. 3 ). Allophyes had been recognized in Cuculliinae before ( Poole 1989), but at a time when Cuculliinae included several lineages that over time have since either been upgraded to subfamilial status or moved to other subfamilies, most notably Oncocnemidinae and Xylenini (Noctuinae) , respectively. Allophyes was also removed from Cuculliinae and placed in Psaphidinae (which we treated as tribe Psaphidini in Amphipyrinae ) with Holarctic genera it superficially resembled ( Fibiger and Hacker 2005, Fibiger and Lafontaine 2005). Beck (1996), based largely on the unusual larval features of Allophyes , erected the tribe Allophyini , but left it in the Psaphidinae. One of the few amphipyrine genera from Europe that we were unable to sample, Meganephria Hübner, [1820] , was also included in that tribe and has a similar caterpillar: both are brown bark mimics that rest head down on twigs, with the dorsum of A8 drawn into a high ridge that bears the D2 seta; both share a flattened head that is partially withdrawn into the prothorax, and setae are borne from raised pimplelike pinacula ( James 2017, Sterling and Henwood 2020). This larval morphology would be exceptional for Amphipyrinae (including Psaphidini ), but it is not immediately evident what unites larvae of Allophyes and Meganephria with other cuculliines. Comparative morphological work is needed to assess the diagnostic morphological characteristics of adult and larval Cuculliinae .

Figures

Fig. 3. Maximum-likelihood tree inferred by RAxML analysis. Clade labels reflect our hypotheses about the extent of the various clades, and the taxonomic changes suggested in Results and Discussion. Lineages shown as being members of various clades may not have as yet been transferred into them. Bootstrap values ≥ 70 are shown at nodes.The scale bar shows estimated number of substitutions per site.The tree continues into Figs. 4–6. Clades are shown in three alternating colors to aid visibility.