Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1923 No. 1: 5 Nov. 2008
Type: Article
Published: 2008-11-05
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1923.1.2
Page range: 18–36
Abstract views: 147
PDF downloaded: 130

Morphology and DNA barcoding reveal three cryptic species within the Xylophanes neoptolemus and loelia species-groups (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

Research Associate, Insectarium de Montréal, 287 62ème Avenue, Chomedey, Québec, H7V 2G4, Canada
Research Associate, Insectarium de Montréal, 287 62ème Avenue, Chomedey, Québec, H7V 2G4, Canada Honorary Attaché, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris, Le Roc, F-47310 Laplume, France
Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph, 579 Gordon Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph, 579 Gordon Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
Lepidoptera COI DNA barcodes new species South America Central America

Abstract

Two species complexes within the genus Xylophanes are addressed using a combination of morphological study and analysis of DNA barcode sequences. The existence of two and three cryptic species respectively within the X. loelia and X. neoptolemus complexes is revealed following consideration of both adult habitus and genital morphology, and the results of a phylogenetic analysis of partial COI sequences—DNA barcodes—for 38 specimens. The taxonomic status of the available names is discussed and to clarify and stabilize the confused nomenclature of this group, a neotype for Sphinx neoptolemus Cramer, 1780, and lectotypes for Choerocampa loelia Druce, 1878 and Chaerocampa trilineata Walker, [1865], are designated. We describe three new species: X. lolita n. sp. Vaglia and Haxaire; X. balcazari n. sp. Haxaire and Vaglia; and X. cthulhu n. sp. Haxaire and Vaglia. The first is endemic to southeastern Brazil and closely allied to X. loelia; the second two are relatives of X. neoptolemus, of which the first is known only from Guerrero and Michoacán states in Mexico while the second is widely distributed in lowland forests of Central America.

References

  1. Bickford, D., Lohman, D.J., Sodhi, N.S., Ng, P.K.L., Meier, R., Winker, K., Ingram, K.K. & Das, I. (2007) Cryptic species as a window on diversity and conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 22, 148–155.

    Bremer, K. (1994) Branch support and tree stability. Cladistics, 10, 295–304.

    Cadiou, J.-M. (1995) Seven new species of Sphingidae (Lepidoptera). Lambillionea, 95, 499–515.

    Chainey, J.E. (2005) The species of Papilionidae and Pieridae (Lepidoptera) described by Cramer and Stoll and their putative type material in the Natural History Museum in London. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 145, 283–337.

    Closs, A. (1917) Xylophanes neoptolemus Stoll, subspec. neoptolemus trinitatis subspec. nov. Internationale Entomologische Zeitschrift, 11, 96.

    Cramer, P. (1780) Uitlandsche Kapellen, voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen Asia, Africa en America, by een verzameld en bescreeven. Barthelemy Wild, S.J. Baalde, Utrecht, 1–28, plates 289-–304.

    Druce, H. (1878) Description of six new species of Sphingidae. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, 14, 248–249.

    Goloboff, P.A. (1999) NONA (NO NAME), Program and Documentation, Version 2.0. Published by the author, Tucuman, Argentina.

    Goloboff, P.A. & Farris, J.S. (2001) Methods for quick consensus estimation. Cladistics, 17, S26–S34.

    Hajibabaei, M., deWaard, J. R., Ivanova, N. V., Ratnasingham, S., Dooh, R. T., Kirk, S. L., Mackie, P. & Hebert, P. D. N. (2005) Critical factors for assembling a high volume of DNA barcodes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (Series B), 360, 1959–1967.

    Hajibabaei, M., Janzen, D.H., Burns, J.M., Hallwachs, W. & Hebert, P.D.N. (2006) DNA barcodes distinguish species of tropical Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 103, 968–971.

    Hall, T.A. (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series, 41, 95–98.

    Hawes, J. (2005) Impacts of landscape level disturbance on Amazonian moth assemblages. MSc. thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. 45 pp.

    Haxaire, J. (1987) Le genre Xylophanes Hübner (1819) en Guyane Francaise. Quelques complements (Lepidoptera Sphingidae). Bulletin de la Société Sciences Nat. 55, 12–19.

    Hebert, P.D., Cywinska, A., Ball, S.L. & deWaard, J.R. (2003) Biological identifications through DNA barcodes. Proceedings of the Royal society B Biological Sciences, 270, 313–321.

    Hebert, P.D.N., Penton, E.H., Burns, J.M., Janzen, D.H. & Hallwachs, W. (2004) Ten species in one: DNA barcoding reveals cryptic species in the neotropical skipper butterfly Astraptes fulgerator. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA, 101, 14812–14817.

    Ivanova, N.V., deWaard, J.R. & Hebert, P.D.N. (2006) An inexpensive, automation-friendly protocol for recovering high-quality DNA. Molecular Ecology Notes, 6, 998–1002.

    Kimura, M. (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rate of base substitution through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 16, 111–120.

    Kitching, I.J. & Cadiou, J.-M. (2000) Hawkmoths of the World. An annotated and illustrated revisionary checklist. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 227 pp.

    Nixon, K.C. (2002) WinClada, Ver. 1.00.08. Published by the author, Ithaca, New York.

    Pfenninger, M. & Schwenk, K. (2007) Cryptic animal species are homogeneously distributed among taxa and biogeographical regions. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 7, 121.

    Ratnasingham, S. & Hebert, P.D.N. (2007) BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System (http://www.barcodinglife.org). Molecular Ecology Notes, 7, 355–364.

    Schaufuss, L.W. (1870) Die exotischen Lepidoptera Heterocera der Fruher Kaden'schen Sammlung. Nunquam Otiosus, 1, 7–23.

    Tamura, K., Dudley, J., Nei, M. & Kumar, S. (2007) MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) Software Version 4.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24, 1596–1599.

    Vane-Wright, R.I. (1975) The butterflies named by J. F. Gmelin (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology), 32, 19–64.

    Walker, F. ([1865]) Supplement. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum, 31, 1–321.