Variation in the female frenulum in Tortricidae (Lepidoptera). Part 1. Chlidanotinae

Authors: YANG, APRIL - UNIV. OF CA, BERKELEY; Brown, John

Submitted to: Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/1/2008
Publication Date: 8/15/2009
Citation: Yang, A., Brown, J.W. 2009. Variation in the female frenulum in Tortricidae (Lepidoptera). Part 1. Chlidanotinae. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 111:742-750.

Interpretive Summary: Many caterpillars of moths known as leaf-rollers are important pests of forest, ornamental, and crop plants, causing millions of dollars of damage annually. Understanding relationships among groups of these moths provides us with the predictive power to anticipate which groups may become pests, which may show promise for biological control, and which may have the potential to become invasive species. In this paper we examine the distribution of an anatomical character, the spines that allow the wings to function in unison, that helps define some groups of leaf-roller moths and provides clues about their relationships. This information will be of interest primarily to scientists involved in understanding relationships among groups of leaf-roller moths, but also to those interested in the evolution of, and variation in, the anatomical character we investigated, which occurs in many families of moths.

Technical Abstract: This paper, treating the tortricid subfamily Chlidanotinae, represents the first in a proposed three-part series examining variation in the number of bristles in the frenulum of female tortricid moths. Based on an examination of 85 described species and 10 undescribed species representing 29 genera of Chlidanotinae, the vast majority of females of Chlidanotini and Hilarographini have a two-bristled frenulum, whereas a three-bristled frenulum is the more common state in Polyorthini. When the character states are mapped on a composite phylogeny of the subfamily, the change from three to two bristles appears to have evolved once at the base of the Chlidanotini+Hilarographini clade and twice within Polyorthini. The consistency of this character within Chlidanotini and Hilarographini provides further evidence for the exclusion of Mictocommosis Diakonoff, Mictopsichia Hübner, and Tortrimosaica Brown & Baixeras from Hilarographini. The distribution of the two-bristled frenulum in Polyorthini appears to support one major clade identified by razowski (i.e., Ardeutica Meyrick, Polyortha Dognin, Pseudatteria Walsingham, and Polythora Razowski), plus one outlier, Cnephasitis Razowski. In the monotypic Olindia schumacherana (Fabricius), five of 18 representatives examined had two bristles, whereas the remainder had three. The distribution of the two-bristled frenulum in Polyorthini appears to support one major clade identified by Razowski (Ardeutica, Polyortha, Pseudatteria, Polythora), plus one outlier, Cnephasitis. Minor deviations from this pattern appear to represent individual variation. We conclude that variation in the number of bristles in the frenulum of tortricid moths is phylogenetically informative in Chlidanotinae.