Befrostiini, Grishin, 2019

Zhang, Jing, Shen, Jinhui, Cong, Qian & Grishin, Nick V., 2019, Genomic analysis of the tribe Emesidini (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae), Zootaxa 4668 (4), pp. 475-488 : 482-483

Befrostiini Grishin, trib. n.

http://zoobank.org/ CF47B25D-F1FA-4166-BF72-88E6EE29576F

Type genus: Befrostia Grishin.

Diagnosis. A tribe without obvious phylogenetic affinities within subfamily Riodininae . Distinguished from other Riodinidae by body white below and bases of wings overscaled with white, hindwing in particular, also along anal margin. Hindwing of females almost square, with small lobule at vein M 3. Male genitalia characterized by disproportionally large aedeagus with one long cornutus, uncus broad, pointed, not concave in ventral view, valva short and rounded, no transtilla, saccus not shorter than valva. In DNA, a combination of the following base pairs is diagnostic: nuclear genome: cne2576.1.37:A2012G, cne792.13.4:A310G, cne4106.6.1:G277C, cne3195.1.6:T355A, cne 2174.2.11:A93G, cne306.12.2:G89T, cne3772.18.1:C271A, cne26635.1.11:A509C, cne 1086.2.12:G82G (not A), cne23980.1.3:G59G (not A), cne4786.7.1:C158C (not A); COI barcode region: G38A, A44T, C83C (not T), T169A, A274T, A322T, C340T, A379T, T400A, T412A, T547A, and A586T.

Genera included: Only the type genus.

Parent taxon: Subfamily Riodininae Grote, 1895 .

Selecting specimen for the genomic analysis, we attempted to sequence as many Emesis species as we could find. More, some of these were represented by their primary type specimens. Analysis of primary types enables us to put our taxonomic analysis on solid footing. We find that the syntype of Emesis vimena Schaus, 1928 from Guatemala is tightly grouped with Emesis brimo Godman & Salvin, 1889 (e.g. only 0.6% difference in COI barcodes) and is better viewed as a more northern subspecies of this species. Emesis tristis Stichel, 1929 considered a synonym of E. vimena , should instead be a synonym of Emesis lupina Godman & Salvin , [1886]. Sequencing of primary type specimens of Emesis adelpha Le Cerf, 1958 and Emesis heteroclita Stichel, 1929 suggests their conspecificity. However, due to wing pattern differences and differences in their distributions, we view E. adelpha and its subspecies E. a. vicaria Le Cerf, 1958 as subspecies of E. heteroclita , rather than its synonyms.

Conversely, we find that some taxa placed as subspecies differ markedly from their nominal subspecies and should be considered distinct as the species level (new status): Emesis furor A. Butler & H. Druce, 1872 (not a subspecies of E. mandana (Cramer, 1780) : not sister taxa, COI barcodes difference of about 2%), Emesis melancholica Stichel, 1916 (not a subspecies of E. lupina Godman & Salvin, 1886 : not in the same clade, COI barcodes 9% different), and Emesis progne (Godman, 1903) (not a subspecies of E. brimo Godman & Salvin, 1889 : COI barcodes 3.8% different). Furthermore, Emesis opaca Stichel, 1910 is not a synonym of E. lucinda (Cramer, 1775) (COI barcodes difference nearly 5%), but a valid species, new status. This change further reveals that Emesis castigata diringeri Gallard 2008 is not a subspecies of E. castigata Stichel, 1910 (COI barcodes difference about 3%), and due to genomic ( Fig. 2 , COI barcodes are 100% identical) and morphological similarities we suggest it to be a subjective junior synonym of E. opaca , new status. Both taxa are from French Guiana. We summarize our results as the following taxonomic list.

Taxonomic arrangement of the tribe Emesidini . The list of species arranged into genera and subgenera resulting from our genomic analysis augmented with morphological considerations is given below. Synonymic names are included for genera and subgenera. Names treated as synonyms (genera and names of type species that are considered to be synonyms) are preceded by “=”: not followed by daggers are subjective junior synonyms; † objective junior synonyms; ‡ unavailable names (such as homonyms and nomina nuda); “preocc.” indicates preoccupied, the taxonomic order (insects) of the senior name is shown in brackets. Synonyms are attributed to subgenera. Type species (TS) for genera and subgenera are listed. For type species that are considered to be synonyms, valid names are shown in parenthesis. For valid genera and subgenera (not their synonyms), names of the type species or names which type species are considered to be synonyms of, are underlined in the list. The type of change is explained after the name (new status, new combination, new placement), and the former status or the genus of former placement is listed. Subspecies names are not listed (except those resulting from the status change in this work) pending further studies.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Sequenced specimens of new genera and subgenera proposed in this study. Dorsal and ventral sides are shown on the left and right, respectively, with the image letter in between. Gray letter F indicates that the mirror image (left-right invert- ed) is shown. DNA sample numbers are indicated for specimens, see Table S1 for other data. a. Curvie emesia, NVG-18045F09, on the right are male genitalia (with a 0.5 mm scale bar) of the specimen NVG-11913, data as for NVG-11914 (Table S1), but eclosed on 15-Feb-1974; b. Emesis (Mandania) mandana, NVG-18044D09; c. Emesis (Poeasia) poeas, NVG-18044G04; d. Emesis (Brimia) brimo, NVG-18045E01; e. Xanthosa xanthosa syntype, NVG-18054D08; f. Xanthosa xanthosa syntype, NVG- 18054D09; g. Xanthosa xanthosa syntype, NVG-18054D10; h. Emesis (Tenedia) tenedia, NVG-18086H06; i. Befrostia elegia syntype male, NVG-18052H02; j. Befrostia elegia syntype male, Brazil, coll. H. Stichel, #1089, NVG-18052H04; k. Befrostia elegia syntype female, no data, NVG-18052H03; l. Befrostia lalannei holotype, NVG-18086H06.All syntypes shown are from the ZMHB collection.