Ambulycini (Kawahara and Barber, 2015)

Timmermans, Martijn J. T. N., Daghmoumi, Sainab M., Glass, Deborah, Hamilton, Chris A., Kawahara, Akito Y. & Kitching, Ian J., 2019, Phylogeny of the Hawkmoth Tribe Ambulycini (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae): Mitogenomes from Museum Specimens Resolve Major Relationships, Insect Systematics and Diversity (AIFB) 3 (6), No. 12, pp. 1-8 : 6

Phylogeny of Ambulycini

Previous phylogenetic analyses of the Ambulycini have yielded conflicting patterns of relationships among the genera. In the present study, Ambulycini are recovered as monophyletic but with only weak support ( Fig. 2 ), though in both analyses, Barbourion is the sister group to the rest of the tribe. In contrast, a clade comprising the remaining genera receives very strong support. This suggests that Barbourion might perhaps be misplaced in Ambulycini , although it could also be an artifact of our limited outgroup sampling. Next to split off is Ambulyx , then Amplypterus . These are followed by Adhemarius , in which Orecta and Trogolegnum are placed. Thus, Adhemarius is paraphyletic relative to the other two genera. The final clade comprises the remaining three ambulycine genera of the present analysis, with Batocnema placed as sister to Compsulyx and these two as sister to Protambulyx . Thus, our results are almost identical to those of the combined molecular and morphological BI analysis of Cardoso (2015; Fig. 1.7 ), except that Batocnema and Compsulyx are sisters, rather than arising separately, and the placement of Orecta is resolved.

Figures

Fig. 2. Maximum Likelihood (ML) topology showing Ambulycini relationships inferred from mitochondrial genome data. Values at nodes indicate SH-aLRT/ Ultrafast Bootstrap/Posterior probabilities. Posterior Probabilities were obtained using Bayesian Inference. ML and Bayesian inferences recovered the same phylogenetic relationships. Scale bar indicates number substitutions per site.Various species are represented by a photograph (indicated with a number behind the species name and next to the respective image). All images are available on the NHM Data Portal (see Table 1), except for 4) B. coquerelii which was taken by Laurel Kaminsky.

Fig. 1. Phylogenetic hypotheses for the hawkmoth tribe Ambulycini. (A) Based on Kawahara and Barber (2015), which used six genes and Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods.(B and C) Based on Cardoso (2015), which used 3 genes and 96 morphological characters.For B, Bayesian Inference was used; for C, Maximum Parsimony.