Informal summary of a manuscript on saturniid phylogeny nearing completion by J. Regier and co-authors, with preliminary figure available at bottom of page.

Paper summary

The Saturniidae, or wild silkmoths, number 1480 species in 165 genera and nine subfamilies including Cercophaninae and Oxyteninae. They include some of the largest and most spectacular of all Lepidoptera, such as the moon or luna moths, atlas moth, emperor moths and many others. Saturniids have been important as sources of wild silk and/or human food in a variety of cultures, and as models for comparative studies of genetics, development, physiology, and ecology. Seeking to improve the phylogenetic framework for such studies, we estimated relationships across Saturniidae, sampling all nine subfamilies plus all five tribes of Saturniinae. Seventy-six exemplars (46 Saturniidae plus 30 bombycoid outgroups) were sequenced for four protein-coding nuclear gene regions (5,625 bp total), including CAD, DDC, period, and wingless. The data were analyzed by parsimony and likelihood. The resulting phylogeny was strongly resolved at all levels. Relationships among subfamilies largely mirrored the pre-cladistic hypothesis of Michener, albeit with significant exceptions, and there was definitive support for the morphology-based proposal that Ludiinae form a tribe (Micragonini) within Saturniinae. In the latter subfamily, the African tribe Urotini was shown to be paraphyletic with respect to Bunaeini and Micragonini, also in accord with recent morphological findings. Relationships within the New World subfamilies Arsenurinae, Ceratocampinae and Hemileucinae nearly always accord with previous morphology-based phylogenies when both are clearly resolved. Within Hemileucinae, Hemileucini are paraphyletic with respect to the monotypic Polythysanini. A preliminary biogeographic analysis supports ancestral restriction to the New World, followed by dispersal and/or vicariance separating splitting most of the family into a largely New-World versus a largely Old-World clade. Like those of bombycoids generally, saturniid adults are unusual among macrolepidopterans in being non-feeding “capital breeders,” marked by a reduced or absent proboscis. However, in the two most ancient subfamilies, Oxyteninae and some but not all Cercophaninae have a fully-developed, presumably functional proboscis, illustrating the complex problem posed by reconstruction of this trait’s evolution.

Legend for draft figure, attached below

Phylogenetic analysis of 76 taxa designed to resolve higher-level relationships within Saturniidae. Outgroups (30 other bombycoid taxa) are not shown. The ML/ nt123 topology is shown, with bootstraps (cladogram on left) for each node for ML/ nt12 and ML/ nt123 above branch, MP/ nt12 and MP/ nt123 below branch. Dashes denote BP < 50%. Brackets around bootstrap value denote groups not recovered in the best tree for that partition and analysis. The two groupings present under ML/ nt12 but not under ML / nt123 are displayed by curved arrows. Dashed lines subtend groups with BP < 80% for ML/nt123. Single and double asterisks identify among-subfamily relationships that are supported and well supported, respectively, as defined in Results. Branch lengths of phylogram (right side) are proportional to total nucleotide change under ML/ nt123.