A phylogenetic study on genera of Cidariini from the holarctic and the Indo-Australian areas (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Larentiinae)

A cladistic analysis of forty-one species, belonging to ten genera, of the Cidariini sensu Herbulot from the Holarctic and the Indo-Australian areas, was performed using seventy-seven characters including larval and pupal data. Eight most parsimonious cladograms were found (length 398, CI 0.30, RI 0.70). The monophyly of the Cidariini is demonstrated, using selected species of Xanthorhoini sensu Herbulot as the outgroup. The relationships among the genera are as follows: (Ecliptopera (Eulithis (Cidaria ((Plemyria (Chloroclysta, Dysstroma))((Thera, Pennithera) (Heterothera))))). This result suggests some taxonomic changes: Dysstroma Hubner, stat. rev. and Chloroclysta Hubner stat. rev. are sister taxa; Heterothera Inoue stat. rev. includes Viidaleppia Inoue, syn.n., Heterothera firmata (Hubner) comb.n. is transferred from Pennithera Viidalepp to Heterothera sensu lato The results of confirmation and incongruence tests suggest that the characters from adult and immature stages exhibit the same evolutionary pattern. Thus the phylogeny derived from the combined data matrix does not give a misleading conclusion, even though there are many missing states in the larval data set.