1 / 13

Ancient Pupation Behavior Suggests Cerma Hübner is an Acronictine Noctuid

This article explores the pupation behavior of Cerma Hübner and three other noctuoid genera, revealing a shared ancient behavior and suggesting a clade relationship. The study also examines morphological differences, male genitalia, wing pattern, and larval alarm response within the subfamily Acronictinae.

emilea
Download Presentation

Ancient Pupation Behavior Suggests Cerma Hübner is an Acronictine Noctuid

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Wagner, D. L. 2007. Barking Up a New Tree: Ancient Pupation Behavior Suggests Cerma Hübner is an Acronictine Noctuid (Lepidoptera). Syst. Entomol. 32: 407-419. Over the past five years, an unusual pupation behavior has been noted in four noctuoid genera, whereby pre-pupal larvae laboriously excavated deep pupal chambers in wood, interned themselves in the completed tunnels, and then concealed the entrances with silk and interwoven wood shavings: Cerma Hübner, Comachara Franclemont, Harrisimemna Grote, and Polygrammate Hübner. Because these moths were believed to represent members of wholly unrelated lineages (two families and three subfamilies) (Forbes, 1954; Franclemont & Todd, 1983; Poole, 1996; Kitching & Rawlins, 1998), the behaviors were initially regarded as convergent. Here the case is made that the four genera form a clade. Significantly, it was the suite of (ancient) shared pupation behaviors noted above that opened the path of inquiry that, in sum, indicates that Cerma and the others are all acronictines. Harris’ Three-spot (Harrismemna trisignata)

  2. Taxonomic Distribution of Wood-tunneling (and Frass Ball-Rolling) Genera of Noctuoidea Family Arctiidae Subfamily Lithosiinae Comachara Family Noctuidae Subfamily Acronictinae Harrisimemna Polygrammate Subfamily Acontiinae (or Eustrotinae) Cerma Prepupal Tunneling in Harris’ Three-spot: Harrisimemna trisignata

  3. Apomorphic: derived or evolved character state • Plesiomorphic: the ancestral or pre-existing state of a character • Apotypic and plesiotypic • Autapomorphic: unique (unshared) derived state • Synapomorphic: uniquely shared derived state • Symplesiomorphic: shared primitive state

  4. Nodes: branching points • Branches (internodes, edges) • terminal nodes: terminal taxa, the entities in the analysis • internal nodes: presumed ancestors • root: basal ancestor

  5. A dendrogram is a broad term for the diagrammatic representation of a phylogenetic tree. A cladogram is a tree formed using cladistic methods. This type of tree only represents a branching pattern, i.e., its branch lengths do not represent time. Synapomorphy mapping scheme. A phylogram is a phylogenetic tree that represents number of character changes through its branch lengths. An ultrametric tree or chronogram is a phylogenetic tree that explicitly represents evolutionary time through its branch lengths.

  6. Number of possible unrooted trees Number of possible rooted trees

  7. Neighbor-joining tree for 657 bp section of COI for 960 species of Smokies moths supports placement of Cerma in the Acronictinae

  8. Cerma: Is it an Acronictine? * Prepupal wood-tunneling * Prepupal reddening * Male genitalia: differences within the subfamily, even the genus make it difficult to homologies structures * Typanum * Scale tufts * Wing pattern * Larva morphology * Larval alarm response * Hostplant use middle instar last instar Cerma cerintha (Tufted Bird-dropping Moth)

  9. Usage depends on level of analysis or inquiry. Example: feathers autapomorphic for the class Aves (relative to other vertebrates) synapomorphic for all bird orders (relative to other vertebrates) symplesiomorphic for ratites and other flightless birds (when trying to work out relationships of bird orders to one another)

More Related