Revision of the Orbamia Herbulot, 1966 group of genera with description of two new genera, ten new species, and two new subspecies (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Ennominae, Cassymini)

Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera)

An annotated checklist of moths was compiled for Zambia based on intensive and extensive reviews of the literature on insects of the country and on field surveys undertaken by the study for a period of five years from March 2013 to October 2017 to confirm some of the literature review records documented. The checklist contains 1,816 species of moths, arranged into 907 genera and 35 subspecies. One hundred and fifty of these moth species are endemic in Zambia. During our biodiversity field surveys, we verified the existence in Zambia of 3.07% of moth taxa reported in the literature. Some species of moths recorded to occur in Zambia are of traditional/nutritional value to some local ethnic groupings in the country. In addition to their use in traditional medicinal concoctions with plants to treat human maladies, some moth larvae or caterpillars serve as extra sources of animal protein and are consumed as snacks and/or relish by the local people. About one percent (0.9%) of all moth species recorded to occur in Zambia and 7.59% of species of the family Saturniidae serve as extra sources of animal protein for some tribes in the country. To date, no moth species in the country has been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This present checklist will serve as a basis for future governmental decisions on the policy of environmental protection, Red List preparation, and management of natural food security issues in Zambia.

Integrative taxonomic revision of the African taxa of the Racotis Moore, 1887 generic complex (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Ennominae, Boarmiini)

The Afrotropical taxa of the Racotis s.l. generic complex are revised utilising integrative taxonomical methods. Based on the evaluation of genital morphology and analyses of DNA barcodes, a new genus, Afroracotis gen. n. is established to include the Afrotropical "Racotis" species. The new genus is subdivided into 5 subgenera: Afroracotis subgen. n., Herbuloracotis subgen. n., Rwandaracotis subgen. n., Zebracotis subgen. n. and Sokokeracotis subgen. n.. A new monotypic genus is described to include Boarmia ugandaria Swinhoe, 1904 which was combined earlier with the genus Chorodna and recently with Racotis: Chorocotis gen. n.. Two species formerly assigned to Cleora are moved to Afroracotis: A. albitrigonis (Prout, 1927) comb. n., A. atriclava (Prout, 1926) comb. n.. Two species are transferred from Racotis to Colocleora: C. breijeri (Prout, 1922) comb. n., C. incauta (Prout, 1916) comb. n.. Seventeen new Afroracotis species (A. aliena, A. stadiei, A. violetteae, A. fiebigi, A. turlini, A. dargei, A. longicornuta, A. aristophanousi, A. muscivirens, A. chaineyi, A. lydiae, A. smithi, A. ochsei, A. milesi, A. helicalis, A. takanoi and A. staudei spp. n.) and 5 new subspecies (A. squalida thomensis, A. argillacea morettoi, A. longicornuta congolana, A. longicornuta ugandana and A. lydiae orientalis sspp. n.) are described, totalling 27 species and 8 subspecies contained in the genus Afroracotis. Adults and genitalia of all taxa are illustrated in 210 colour and 129 black and white figures demonstrating the intraspecific variability. The distribution of all taxa is illustrated in 6 dot maps. The results of the genetic analyses are figured in four phylograms.

Taxonomic review of the genus Morabia Hausmann & Tujuba, 2020 with descriptions of two new species and introducing five new generic combinations (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Ennominae)

The paper contains the description of two new species of the genus Morabia Hausmann & Tujuba, 2020: M. cryptica sp. n. and M. smithi sp. n. The descriptions are based on both morphological data and DNA barcoding. Based on integrative taxonomic analyses, five new combinations are proposed: Morabia nigripunctata (Warren, 1897), comb. n. described from Nigeria, Morabia hero (Viette, 1971), comb. n., Morabia pluto (Viette, 1971), comb. n. described from Madagascar, Morabia herbuloti (Orhant, 2003), comb. n. described from Réunion and Morabia distinctaria (Joannis, 1915), comb. n. described from Mauritius are transferred from the genus Ectropis Hübner, 1825 to Morabia. The female genitalia of M. nigripunctata, M. brunnea Hausmann & Tujuba, 2020, M. hero and M. herbuloti are described and illustrated for the first time. Detailed diagnoses and re-descriptions of all taxa newly transferred to Morabia are given, interspecific pairwise distances of DNA barcodes are calculated and a maximum likelihood tree is compiled. The paper is illustrated with 38 colour and 38 black and white diagnostic images and a distribution map.  

Congruence between morphology-based species and Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) in Neotropical Eumaeini (Lycaenidae)

BACKGROUND

With about 1,000 species in the Neotropics, the Eumaeini (Theclinae) are one of the most diverse butterfly tribes. Correct morphology-based identifications are challenging in many genera due to relatively little interspecific differences in wing patterns. Geographic infraspecific variation is sometimes more substantial than variation between species. In this paper we present a large DNA barcode dataset of South American Lycaenidae. We analyze how well DNA barcode BINs match morphologically delimited species.

METHODS

We compare morphology-based species identifications with the clustering of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) delimitated by the RESL algorithm in BOLD, which assigns Barcode Index Numbers (BINs). We examine intra- and interspecific divergences for genera represented by at least four morphospecies. We discuss the existence of local barcode gaps in a genus by genus analysis. We also note differences in the percentage of species with barcode gaps in groups of lowland and high mountain genera.

RESULTS

We identified 2,213 specimens and obtained 1,839 sequences of 512 species in 90 genera. Overall, the mean intraspecific divergence value of CO1 sequences was 1.20%, while the mean interspecific divergence between nearest congeneric neighbors was 4.89%, demonstrating the presence of a barcode gap. However, the gap seemed to disappear from the entire set when comparing the maximum intraspecific distance (8.40%) with the minimum interspecific distance (0.40%). Clear barcode gaps are present in many genera but absent in others. From the set of specimens that yielded COI fragment lengths of at least 650 bp, 75% of the a priori morphology-based identifications were unambiguously assigned to a single Barcode Index Number (BIN). However, after a taxonomic a posteriori review, the percentage of matched identifications rose to 85%. BIN splitting was observed for 17% of the species and BIN sharing for 9%. We found that genera that contain primarily lowland species show higher percentages of local barcode gaps and congruence between BINs and morphology than genera that contain exclusively high montane species. The divergence values to the nearest neighbors were significantly lower in high Andean species while the intra-specific divergence values were significantly lower in the lowland species. These results raise questions regarding the causes of observed low inter and high intraspecific genetic variation. We discuss incomplete lineage sorting and hybridization as most likely causes of this phenomenon, as the montane species concerned are relatively young and hybridization is probable. The release of our data set represents an essential baseline for a reference library for biological assessment studies of butterflies in mega diverse countries using modern high-throughput technologies an highlights the necessity of taxonomic revisions for various genera combining both molecular and morphological data.