Cobubatha, Walker, 1863

Keegan, Kevin L., Rota, Jadranka, Zahiri, Reza, Zilli, Alberto, Wahlberg, Niklas, Schmidt, B. Christian, Lafontaine, J. Donald, Goldstein, Paul Z. & Wagner, David L., 2021, Toward a Stable Global Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) Taxonomy, Insect Systematics and Diversity (AIFB) 5 (3), pp. 1-24 : 5

Cobubatha Clade

The three genera Aucha Walker, 1858 ; Cobubatha Walker, 1863 ; and Tripudia Grote, 1877 formed a well-supported clade (BS = 99, SH = 99.3, UF = 100) that is poorly supported as sister to Dyopsinae in our RAxML analysis (BS = 67) and poorly supported as sister to the clade containing Homolagoa Barnes & McDunnough, 1912 and Plusiinae in our IQ-TREE analysis (SH = 65.2, UF = 27; Fig. 3 ). Cobubatha and Tripudia are currently treated as Eustrotiinae ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010, Schmidt et al. 2018); Aucha has been variously treated as in Amphipyrinae ( Poole 1989) , Acronictinae / Amphipyrinae ( Edwards 1996) , and most recently treated as in Xyleninae ( Holloway 2011) , which we regarded to be a tribe of Noctuinae ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010, Schmidt et al. 2018). In addition to our molecular data, the clade stands apart from other noctuids in both adult and larval morphologies. Here we propose a new subfamily for these three genera.

Figures

Fig. 3. Maximum-likelihood tree inferred by RAxML analysis. Clade labels reflect our hypotheses about the extent of the various clades, and the taxonomic changes suggested in Results and Discussion. Lineages shown as being members of various clades may not have as yet been transferred into them. Bootstrap values ≥ 70 are shown at nodes.The scale bar shows estimated number of substitutions per site.The tree continues into Figs. 4–6. Clades are shown in three alternating colors to aid visibility.