Lithinini

Author : Frederick H. Rindge
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Generic Revision of the New World Nacophorini (Lepidoptera, Geometridae) written by Frederick H. Rindge and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The present paper is the first attempt to define the genera of the New World Nacophorini. Owing to the very large number of species of the Ennominae, to which the Nacophorini belong, an almost complete lack of previous revisionary studies, and no earlier effort to delimit this tribe for the entire New World, the results of the present paper must be considered provisional at best; hopefully, a good starting point has been established for continuing research and understanding of the Nacophorini. A total of 187 species was studied, and 161 columns of data were obtained for each of them based on external morphology and the male and female genitalia. In a number of cases it was possible to establish the relative plesiomorphy or apomorphy for these character states. A grouping of the species resulted in their being placed in 40 genera; some of their more important characters are listed in several tables, are fully described, and are separable by using the keys to the adults based on external morphology and male genitalia. Illustrations for adults and genitalia of all genera are included. Ceratonyx, Yermoia, and Dentinalia, all previously revised by me, were found to be polyphyletic and have been subdivided. The following new genera are proposed; the type species is given only when it is described as new in this revision: Papago, Salasaca (S. spinea), Hildalgo, Cundinamarca (C. parallela), Aragua, Azuayia, Tarma, Charca (C. triquetra), Nazca, Rucana, Achagua (A. obsolete), Quillaca (Q. earina), Anischnopteris, Canelo (C. constrictus), Aconcagua, Arauco, Omaguacua, Huapianus (H. obater), and Poya. The following changes in status are proposed: Mallomus, described by E. Blanchard in the Hepialidae, was found to belong to the Nacophorini; this name takes priority over Salpis Mabille and its several synonyms. Dasystole Warren is also placed in the synonymy of Mallomus. Ischnopterix Hübner and Amblurodes Warren are synonymized under Ischnopteris Hübner. Catophoenissa Warren and Calvertia Warren are transferred to the Lithinini; Talca catophoenissoides Angulo is placed as a synonym of Calvertia fumipennis Warren. The tribe is divided into four groups based on a combination of characters including, among others, the presence or absence of a functional proboscis, a simple or complex uncus in the male genitalia, and present-day distribution. An analysis of the character states with regard to which are relatively more primitive or more derived suggests that the two most plesiotypic groups are found primarily in North America and in Chile and southern Argentina. In the New World the Nacophorini are found from southern Canada to Chile and southern Argentina, plus the Greater Antilles and the Galapagos Islands. The tribe is also known from Australia and Tasmania. This Chilean-southem South American and Australian distribution strongly suggests that the Gondwanian fragmentation contributed to the present-day distribution of the tribe. These Gondwanian elements, plus plesiotypic components in North America, indicate an ancestral distribution of perhaps pre-Gondwanian age. The Greater Antillean-Galapagos distribution, found in Thyrinteina, can possibly be explained by the ancestral moths being present on the proto-Antilles in the late Mesozoic when this volcanic archipelago connected North and South America; subsequent plate tectonic events formed the Greater Antilles in an eastern movement and the Galapagos in a southwestern shift in the middle or late Tertiary. The present distribution of Holochroa is in the southwestern United States, western Mexico, and the Tres Marías Islands; the group is not known from Baja California. This peninsula was originally part of western Mexico; it began to separate from the mainland at least four million years ago. The Tres Marías Islands are undoubtedly a fragment of the original peninsula that broke off during the rafting of the latter; the separation of Baja California was completed by late Miocene and early Pliocene. Presumably, representatives of the ancestral Holochroa were in western Mexico prior to the splitting; they, for whatever reasons, separated into two species on the Tres Marías but apparently did not survive on the Baja California peninsula"--P. 147.