A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution

Abstract

We report the first discovery since the 1970s of a new extant family (Aenigmatineidae fam.n.) of homoneurous moths, based on the small Aenigmatinea glatzella sp.n. from Kangaroo Island off southern Australia. It exhibits a combination of extraordinary anatomical characters, and, unlike most homoneurous moths, its larva is a conifer‐feeder (stem mining in Callitris, Cupressaceae). While the adult's mouthparts are strongly regressed, evidence from other morphological characters and from a Bayesian analysis of 25 genetic loci convincingly places the taxon among Glossata (‘tongue moths’). An unexpected tongue moth clade including Acanthopteroctetidae and Neopseustidae, suggested with low support in recent molecular analyses, remarkably becomes strongly supported when Aenigmatinea is included in the molecular analysis; the new taxon becomes subordinated in that clade (as sister group to Neopseustidae) and the clade itself appears as the sister group of all Heteroneura, representing the vast majority of all Lepidoptera. Including Aenigmatinea into the analysis thereby strengthens the surprising indication of non‐monophyly of Myoglossata, and the new phylogeny requires an additional number of ad hoc assumptions of convergence/character reversals in early Lepidoptera evolution. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:44393B52-1889-431A-AB08-6BBCF8F946B8.

A molecular phylogeny for the oldest (nonditrysian) lineages of extant Lepidoptera, with implications for classification, comparative morphology and life‐history evolution

“…The basal split within Coelolepida in all 19‐gene analyses is between a clade consisting of Lophocoronidae plus Exoporia (node 13; BP = 96, nt123) and a very weakly supported clade containing all other families (node 24; BP = 37, degen1). The last is divided basally into Heteroneura (node 27; BP = 100, degen1) and a group consisting of Neopseustidae plus Acanthopteroctetidae (node 25), which, although weakly supported here (BP = 62, degen1), was strongly supported in the analysis including Aenigmatinea (Kristensen et al , ). The strong pairing of Lophocoronidae and Exoporia is among the greatest surprises emerging from this study, as it contradicts monophyly for both Myoglossata and Neolepidoptera (Fig.…”

“…According to Kristensen et al (2015), the new family Aenigmatineidae is strongly grouped with Acanthopteroctetidae and Neopseustidae (node 26 in our Fig. 2), specifically as sister group to a monophyletic Neopseustidae.…”

“…It is possible that the dearth of sequence obtainable for the neopseustid genus Apoplania Davis (3639 bp; Table S1) contributed to this apparent anomaly. But it is noteworthy that when Aenigmatinea is included, support for the group comprising all three taxa (and with Aenigmatinea and neopseustids being sister groups) is much stronger (Kristensen et al , ).…”

“…on higher plants (Kristensen, 1997;Powell et al, 1998;Menken et al, 2010). Recently, the new monobasic homoneurous family, Aenigmatineidae (included species Aenigmatinea glatzella Kristensen & Edwards), was discovered and described from South Australia (Kristensen et al, 2015). Analyses for the present paper did not include the new taxon, but we include discussion of it where relevant.…”

The blueprint of the Amphiesmenoptera – Tarachoptera, a new order of insects from Burmese amber (Insecta, Amphiesmenoptera)

“…Also, the unbranched media is a further apomorphic trait which contributes to the strange and unique wing venation of Tarachoptera. In Lepidoptera, a simple, undivided medial vein was observed only in the primitive family Aenigmatineidae (Kristensen et al, 2014).…”