Barking up a new tree: ancient pupation behaviour suggests that Cerma Hubner is an acronictine noctuid (Lepidoptera)

摘要

Larval morphology and behaviour, thoracic and abdominal vestiture and patterning, and cytochrome oxidase I (COI) data support the placement of Cerma Hubner in the Acronictinae. Features of the prepupal coloration transformation, metathoracic ear, and male genitalia provide additional, somewhat weaker, evidence that Cerma is a Dagger Moth. Morphological and behavioural characters suggest a close phylogenetic relationship between Cerma and Harrisimemna Grote. Cerma and Harrisimemna (as well as Comachara Franclemont and Polygrammate Hubner) share a unique pupation habitat: all excavate a deep tunnel in bark or wood, intern themselves within the tunnel, and then conceal the entrance with a layer of silk into which wood shavings are woven. In addition, all four genera collect their frass or wood shavings, loosely bundle them with silk, and then push or toss the bundles away from the tunnel entrance; Comachara, Harrisimemna, and Polygrammate fastidiously gather and roll the shavings into small balls. Cerma's membership has significant phylogenetic implications: (1) the evolution of the complex brush organ-lever system of the second abdominal segment present in Cerma males will map more basally in the trifid noctuids than heretofore known, and, consequently (2) the establishment of higher-level taxa (e.g. the Lophonyctinae and Sinocharinae) based on the presence of these brush organs will need to be re-evaluated. Additionally, the inclusion of Cerma in the Acronictinae will negate two of the most widely employed characters for circumscription of the subfamily, i.e. the presence of secondary setae and the possession of more than one seta on the L3 pinaculum of the abdominal segments. Curiously, morphological and behavioural evidence assembled here is strongly contradicted by COI data with regard to the subfamilial placement of Harrisimemna Grote. Note is made of numerous characters shared by acronictine and arctiine larvae.