Phylogenetic reassessment of the five forewing radial-veined tribes of Riodininae (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae)

Abstract

The relationships among the genera and tribal groupings of Riodininae with five forewing radial veins, and between these and tribes with four forewing radial veins, were examined using a phylogenetic analysis. Using the type species from all sixteen genera in the tribal groupings Eurybiini, Mesosemiini and incertae sedis (a presumed paraphyletic group of loosely related genera), and representatives from the four forewing radial-veined riodinine tribes, thirty-five new and traditional characters were coded from adult ecology, wing venation and pattern, the adult head and body, male and female genitalia, and early stage ecology and morphology. The majority of characters are illustrated. Phylogenetic analysis of these data produced five equally most parsimonious cladograms using equal weights and after successive weighting. The strict consensus of these confirms the monophyly of Eurybiini and Mesosemiini as currently conceived, but also indicates several higher-level relationships not previously hypothesized. Mesosemiini is here more broadly defined to also include the entire incertae sedis section, and the tribe is divided into Mesosemiina, for the previously delimited Mesosemiini plus Eunogyra and Teratophthalma, and Napaeina, subtr.n. for the incertae sedis section minus these two genera. The following hypothesis of relationships is tentatively proposed for the basal clades of Riodininae: Mesosemiini + (Eurybiini + remainder of Riodininae). These new hypotheses, and the characters supporting them, are discussed and compared with those previously proposed.