Frederickia nom. n. , a new replacement name for the moth genus Rindgea Ferguson, 2008 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

A new replacement name, Frederickia nom. n., is proposed for the preoccupied genus name Rindgea Ferguson, 2008 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), and the 14 species previously in that genus are combined with the new name, as follows: Frederickia s-signata (Packard, 1873), comb. n.; Frederickia hypaethrata (Grote, 1881), comb. n.; Frederickia cyda (Druce, 1893), comb. n.; Frederickia maricopa (Hulst, 1898), comb. n.; Frederickia nigricomma (Warren, 1904), comb. n.; Frederickia parcata (Grossbeck, 1908), comb. n.; Frederickia subterminata (Barnes & McDunnough, 1913), comb. n.; Frederickia stipularia (Barnes & McDunnough, 1913), comb. n.; Frederickia flaviterminata (Barnes & McDunnough, 1913), comb. n.; Frederickia ballandrata (Wright, 1923), comb. n.; Frederickia indeterminata (McDunnough, 1939), comb. n.; Frederickia piccoloi (Rindge, 1976), comb. n.; Frederickia disparcata (Ferguson, 2008), comb. n.; and Frederickia prolificata (Ferguson, 2008), comb. n.Peer reviewe

Tribal assignment of the genus Eumera Staudinger, 1892, using multi-gene analysis, with description of a new species from Iran (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae)

The geometrid moth genus Eumera Staudinger, 1892 consists of five yellow-orange-pinkish species distributed in the western Palearctic, with uncertain tribal classification within the geometrid subfamily Ennominae. In this study, we explored the phylogenetic position of the genus Eumera. Therefore, a concatenated dataset was analyzed, which includes one mitochondrial and up to ten protein-coding genetic markers per taxa. Moreover, we compared some external and internal morphological traits to other closely related genera. Our phylogenetic inference and comparative morphology suggested that Eumera should be included in the tribe Prosopolophini. In addition, a new species, Eumera rajaeii sp. nov. Wanke & Shirvani is described from southern Iran, and diagnosed by molecular data and morphological features. The distribution of the Iranian species is shown on a map. We illustrate external characters and male genitalia of three closely related Eumera species.Peer reviewe

Barcoding Fauna Bavarica – Capturing Central European Animal Diversity

The Barcoding Fauna Bavarica (BFB) is an All Species Barcoding campaign ran by the Zoologische Staatssammlung in Munich and the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (www. faunabavarica.de). Core funding comes from the Bavarian Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts and from Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute. The initial funding period is from 2009–2013. Bavaria has the highest biodiversity of all German states, with at least 35000 animal species reported, representing a significant portion of the central European species diversity. Ecoregions include high altitude biomes, foothill areas and forested lowlands. The Zoologische Staatssammlung (ZSM) is one of the largest German natural history research institutions. It holds the world’s largest collection of Lepidoptera and Germany’s largest Hymenoptera collection. Since mid-2009, the BFB project has contributed DNA barcode records from 7208 specimens representing 3000 species and is therefore, after less than one year, one of the most comprehensive sources for local DNA barcode data. The focus groups for the initial phase were Lepidoptera (1820 species barcoded), bees (316 species), ants (39 species) and aquatic insects (322 species). Work on these focal groups will continue during 2010, with the goal to complete 80% of the Bavarian focal group species by the end of the year. New focal groups are Diptera, Mollusca, all Vertebrata and terrestrial Coleoptera, targeting 2000 species in 2010. Most tissue samples come from specimens in the ZSM collection, and where this was not feasible from freshly collected and identified specimens. This rapid progress reflects the strong involvement of taxonomists throughout the process, which is one of our key missions. We have implemented a system which co-ordinates vouchers stored in our main collection, with tissues as well as DNA samples in our DNA bank

A novel approach for reliable qualitative and quantitative prey spectra identification of carnivorous plants combining DNA metabarcoding and macro photography

Prey spectra (the number and composition of captured arthropods) represent a crucial aspect of carnivorous plant ecology, yet remain poorly studied. Traditional morphology-based approaches for prey identification are time-intensive, require specialists with considerable knowledge of arthropod taxonomy, and are hampered by high numbers of unidentifiable (i.e., heavily digested) prey items. We examined prey spectra of three species of closely-related annual Drosera (Droseraceae, sundews) from tropical northern Australia using a novel DNA metabarcoding approach with in-situ macro photography as a plausibility control and to facilitate prey quantity estimations. This new method facilitated accurate analyses of carnivorous plant prey spectra (even of heavily digested prey lacking characteristic morphological features) at a taxonomic resolution and level of completeness far exceeding morphology-based methods and approaching the 100% mark at arthropod order level. Although the three studied species exhibited significant differences in detected prey spectra, little prey specialisation was observed and habitat or plant population density variations were likely the main drivers of prey spectra dissimilarity

A streamlined collecting and preparation protocol for DNA barcoding of Lepidoptera as part of large-scale rapid biodiversity assessment projects, exemplified by the Indonesian Biodiversity Discovery and Information System (IndoBioSys)

Here we present a general collecting and preparation protocol for DNA barcoding of Lepidoptera as part of large-scale rapid biodiversity assessment projects, and a comparison with alternative preserving and vouchering methods. About 98% of the sequenced specimens processed using the present collecting and preparation protocol yielded sequences with more than 500 base pairs. The study is based on the first outcomes of the Indonesian Biodiversity Discovery and Information System (IndoBioSys). IndoBioSys is a German-Indonesian research project that is conducted by the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, in close cooperation with the Research Center for Biology – Indonesian Institute of Sciences (RCB-LIPI, Bogor)

Insect taxonomy can be difficult : a noctuid moth (Agaristinae: Aletopus imperialis) and a geometrid moth (Sterrhinae: Cartaletis dargei) combined into a cryptic species complex in eastern Africa (Lepidoptera)

The systematic position of a large and strikingly coloured reddish-black moth, Cartaletis dargei Herbulot, 2003 (Geometridae: Sterrhinae) from Tanzania, has remained questionable since its description. Here we present molecular and morphological evidence showing that Cartaletis dargei only superficially resembles true Cartaletis Warren, 1894 (the relative name currently considered a junior synonym of Aletis Hubner, 1820), which are unpalatable diurnal moths superficially resembling butterflies, and that it is misplaced in the family Geometridae. We transfer it to Noctuidae: Agaristinae, and combine it with the genus Aletopus Jordan, 1926, from Tanzania, as Aletopus dargei (Herbulot, 2003) (new combination). We revise the genus Aletopus to contain three species, but find that it is a cryptic species complex that needs to be revised with more extensive taxon sampling. Our results demonstrate the difficulties in interpreting and classifying biological diversity. We discuss the problems in species delimitation and the potential drivers of evolution in eastern Africa that led to phenotypic similarity in unrelated lepidopteran lineages.Peer reviewe

Information dropout patterns in restriction site associated DNA phylogenomics and a comparison with multilocus Sanger data in a species-rich moth genus

A rapid shift from traditional Sanger sequencing-based molecular methods to the phylogenomic approach with large numbers of loci is underway. Among phylogenomic methods, restriction site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing approaches have gained much attention as they enable rapid generation of up to thousands of loci randomly scattered across the genome and are suitable for nonmodel species. RAD data sets however suffer from large amounts of missing data and rapid locus dropout along with decreasing relatedness among taxa. The relationship between locus dropout and the amount of phylogenetic information retained in the data has remained largely uninvestigated. Similarly, phylogenetic hypotheses based on RAD have rarely been compared with phylogenetic hypotheses based on multilocus Sanger sequencing, even less so using exactly the same species and specimens. We compared the Sanger-based phylogenetic hypothesis (8 loci; 6172 bp) of 32 species of the diverse moth genus Eupithecia (Lepidoptera, Geometridae) to that based on double-digest RAD sequencing (3256 loci; 726,658 bp). We observed that topologies were largely congruent, with some notable exceptions that we discuss. The locus dropout effect was strong. We demonstrate that number of loci is not a precise measure of phylogenetic information since the number of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may remain low at very shallow phylogenetic levels despite large numbers of loci. As we hypothesize, the number of SNPs and parsimony informative SNPs (PIS) is low at shallow phylogenetic levels, peaks at intermediate levels and, thereafter, declines again at the deepest levels as a result of decay of available loci. Similarly, we demonstrate with empirical data that the locus dropout affects the type of loci retained, the loci found in many species tending to show lower interspecific distances than those shared among fewer species. We also examine the effects of the numbers of loci, SNPs, and PIS on nodal bootstrap support, but could not demonstrate with our data our expectation of a positive correlation between them. We conclude that RAD methods provide a powerful tool for phylogenomics at an intermediate phylogenetic level as indicated by its broad congruence with an eight-gene Sanger data set in a genus of moths. When assessing the quality of the data for phylogenetic inference, the focus should be on the distribution and number of SNPs and PIS rather than on loci.Peer reviewe

First Report of three Tortricidae species on Quercus suber Forest in Northwestern Tunisia

The Tunisian fauna of Tortricidae has been poorly investigated despite the great economic importance of this family. Sampling of Tortricidae insects was carried out in spring and summer 2010 in two cork oak (Quercus suber) forestsin northwestern Tunisia. Three species are reported for the first time: Archips xylosteana, Pammene splendidulana, Pammene giganteana. Their identification was achieved using DNA barcodes

A new fossil inchworm moth discovered in Miocene Dominican amber (Lepidoptera : Geometridae)

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MWe report a fossil geometrid moth, a male, virtually complete, preserved in a clear piece of Miocene Dominican amber dating from 19 to 16 Mya. Fore- and hindwings appear partially overlapped, and all body characters are visible externally in dorsal and ventral views, including the outer surface of the valvae of the genitalia. The scale pattern on the wing membrane is preserved, whereas the wing color pattern is not. It belongs to the genus Dolichoneura (Geometridae: Desmobathrinae) and is named Dolichoneura jorelisae Sarto i Monteys, Hausmann, Baixeras and Peñalver sp. n., based on wing features. Because of the poor fossil record of lepidopterans, both in amber and compression rocks, the description of the available well-preserved specimens is of considerable interest for phylogenetic studies. Furthermore, it could also serve for calibrating molecular clocks and for paleobiogeographic inferences