Neotherina Dognin

Sullivan, J. Bolling & Chacon, Isidro, 2011, The genus Neotherina Dognin (Geometridae, Ennominae) in Costa Rica, ZooKeys 149, pp. 39-49 : 40

Neotherina Dognin

Neotherina Dognin, 1914: 402. Type species, Neotherina inconspicua , Dognin, 1914.

Remarks.

Pitkin (2002) indicated that Neotherina has no apomorphies that adequately define it and that it is closely related to Evita Capps, Lambdina and Nepytia Hulst. She transferred four species into the genus from other genera ( Trygodes Guènee, Eusarca Hübner) based in large part on the structure of the aedeagus (pointed, sinuous, posterior process and usually with a subterminal process as well). She considered the transfer provisional based on the uncertainly of the monophyly of Neotherina . One species, Neotherina noxiosa Dognin, was removed from the genus by Pitkin because it lacks a furca, a process originating near the dorsal margin of the juxta that defines the Ourapterygini into which Neotherina has been placed. Superficially, Neotherina species are similar to species placed in Lambdina and Nephodia ( Nephodiini ), but the monophyly of those genera is uncertain. The monophyly of the Ourapterygini versus Nephodiini is also questionable, since characters separating the two tribes are based largely on characters of the furca ( Pitkin 2002, see also Sihvonen et al. 2011).