Phaeoura quernaria

Young, Catherine J., 2006, Molecular relationships of the Australian Ennominae (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) and implications for the phylogeny of the Geometridae from molecular and morphological data, Zootaxa 1264 (1), pp. 1-147 : 1-147

P. quernaria , E. magnaria and Dectochilus antucaria

Dectochilus Butler was assigned to the Nacophorini by Pitkin (2002) and is endemic to Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Sequence divergences between D. antucaria and P. quernaria and E. magnaria , in turn, are similar at 5.9% and 6.2% (Appendix 6). Only the male genitalia of D. antucaria were available for comparison.

These species share the following characteristics:

—socii; gnathos with narrow arms; simple valvae with dense setal patch at apex in E. magnaria and D. antucaria ; juxta well­developed, moderate to large; cornuti present in E. magnaria and D. antucaria .

Rindge (1983) divided the American Nacophorini into four groups based on characters such as the presence or absence of a functional proboscis, a simple or complex uncus and contemporary distribution. D. antucaria most likely belongs to Group Two which consists of genera distributed in the southern USA, Mexico, Chile and Argentina and on the basis of the presence of the following morphological characters: simple antenna, A3 setal comb, two pairs of hindtibial spurs, simple uncus, socii, V­shaped gnathos, short processes of the anellus. No larval material has been described for this species, however Parra and Henriquez­Rodriguez (1993) described the larva of Mallomus falcata Rindge , also a Group Two nacophorine (sensu Rindge 1983). Similar to E. magnaria , M. falcata has four lateral setae on the A6 proleg, a common attribute in Ennominae in this study (unpubl. data), but at odds with the multiple lateral setae characteristic of the Group One nacophorines (see above). This species also has extra vestigial prolegs on A4 and A5, again a feature that is absent in Group One nacophorines but widespread in the Australian nacophorines. As descriptions of South American nacophorines are very sparse it is difficult to assess the distribution of this character in this group.

The high level of molecular support for this clade may indicate a close relationship between Group One and Group Two American Nacophorini (sensu Rindge 1983) and again between Ennomos and the American Nacophorini .