Phylogenetic relationships of the New World Troidini swallowtails (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) based on COI, COII, and EF-1alpha genes

A phylogeny of the Neotropical members of the Tribe Troidini (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) was obtained with sequences of three protein-coding genes: two mitochondrial (COI and COII), and one nuclear (EF-1alpha). Parsimony and Bayesian analyses of 33 taxa resulted in very similar trees regardless of method used with the 27 troidines always forming a monophyletic clade. Within Troidini, the genus Battus is sister group to the remaining troidines, followed by a clade formed by the Paleotropical taxa (here represented by three exemplars). The genus Euryades is the next branch, and sister group of Parides. The genus Parides is monophyletic, and is divided into four main groups by Maximum Parsimony analysis, with the most basal group composed of tailed species restricted to SE Brazil. Character optimization of ecological and morphological traits over the phylogeny proposed for troidines indicated that the use of several species of Aristolochia is ancestral over the use of few or a single host-plant. For the other three characters, the ancestral states were the absence of long tails, forest as the primary habitat and oviposition solitary or in loose group of several eggs.     

PHYLOGENY OF CARTERIA (CHLOROPHYCEAE) INFERRED FROM MOLECULAR AND ORGANISMAL DATA1

Comparative ultrastructural data have shown that at least two distinct groups exist within Carteria. Similarly, interpretations of variation in gross morphological features have led to the discovery of morphologically distinct groups within the genus. Partial sequences from the nuclear-encoded small- and large-subunit ribosomal RNA molecules of selected Carteria taxa were studied as a means of 1) testing hypotheses that distinct groups of species exist within the genus and 2) assessing monophyly of the genus. Parsimony analysis of the sequence data suggests that three Carteria species, C. lunzensis, C. crucifera, and C. olivieri, form a monophyletic group that is the basal sister group to all other ingroup flagellate taxa (including species of Chlamydomonas, Haematococcus, Stephanosphaera, Volvox, and Eudorina). Two other Carteria taxa, C. radiosa and Carteria sp. (UTEX isolate LB 762), form a clade that is the sister group to a clade that includes Haematococcus spp., Chlamydomonas spp., and Stephanosphaera. Thus, the sequence data support the interpretations of ultrastructural evidence that described two distinct Carteria lineages. Moreover, the sequence data suggest that these two Carteria groups do not form a monophyletic assemblage. Parsimony analysis of a suite of organismal (morphological, ultra-structural, life history, and biochemical) character data also suggest two distinct lineages among the five Carteria taxa; however, the organismal data are ambiguous regarding monophyly of these Carteria taxa. When the two independent data sets are pooled, monophyly of Carteria is not supported; therefore, the weight of available evidence, both molecular and organismal, fails to support the concept of Carteria as a natural genus.     

Phylogeny of Oedogoniales (Chlorophyceae, Chlorophyta) inferred from 18S rDNA sequences with emphasis on the relationships in the genus Oedogonium based on ITS-2 sequences

The phylogeny of Oedogoniales was investigated by using nuclear 18S rDNA sequences. Results showed that the genus Oedocladium, as a separated clade, was clustered within the clade of Oedogonium; whereas the genus Bulbochaete was in a comparatively divergent position to the other two genera. The relationship among the species of Oedogonium was discussed, focusing on ITS-2 phylogeny analyzed combining with some morphological characteristics. Our results showed that all the dioecious nannandrous taxa involved in this study were resolved into one clade, while all the monocious taxa were clustered into another clade as a sister group to the former. The report also suggests that the dioecious macrandrous taxa form a paraphyly and could be more basally situated than the dioecious nannandrous and the monoecious taxa by means of molecular phylogeny and morphotype investigations.     

Phylogeny of Castanea (Fagaceae) based on chloroplast trnT-L-F sequence data

Species in the genus Castanea are widely distributed in the deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere from Asia to Europe and North America. They show floristic similarity but differences in chestnut blight resistance especially among eastern Asian and eastern North American species. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted in this study using sequences of three chloroplast noncoding trnT-L-F regions. The trnT-L region was found to be the most variable and informative region. The highest proportion of parsimony informative sites, more and larger indels, and higher pairwise distances between taxa were obtained at trnT-L than at the other two regions. The high A+T values (74.5%) in the Castanea trnT-L region may explain the high proportion of transversions found in this region where as comparatively lower A+T values were found in the trnL intron (68.35%) and trnL-F spacer (70.07%) with relatively balanced numbers of transitions and transversions. The genus Castanea is supported as a monophyletic clade, while the section Eucastanon is paraphyletic. C. crenata is the most basal clade and sister to the remainder of the genus. The three Chinese species of Castanea are supported as a single monophyletic clade, whose sister group contains the North American and European species. There is consistent but weak support for a sister–group relationship between the North American species and European species.     

Phylogeny and biosystematics ofPseudomonotes (Dipterocarpaceae) based on molecular and morphological data

The placement of a recently discovered South American monotypic genus,Pseudomonotes tropenbosii, in subfam.Monotoideae (Dipterocarpaceae) extends the geographical range of the subfamily from Africa to the Neotropics. Although morphological and anatomical evidence suggest similarities betweenPseudomonotes andMonotes, the close alliance of these two genera was questionable due to their disjunct distribution and a lack of phylogenetic analysis. In the present study, we reconstructed the phylogeny ofPseudomonotes and other putatively related taxa usingrbcL sequence data. The analysis ofrbcL sequences of 20 taxa belonging to 15 genera and eight families recovered a single most parsimonious tree. The genusSarcolaena (Sarcolaenaceae) formed a clade sister to the monophyleticDipterocarpaceae clade.Monotes andPseudomonotes formed a strongly supported group, sister to the monophyletic clade withPakaraimaea and the remaining Asiatic dipterocarp species studied. The study strongly supports the placement ofPseudomonotes within subfam.Monotoideae of theDipterocarpaceae.     

Origin and diversification of the cryptic ant genus Stenamma Westwood (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), inferred from multilocus molecular data,biogeography and natural history

The genus Stenamma Westwood comprises a group of cryptic, cold tolerant ants that occur throughout the Holarctic and Middle American regions. Traditional approaches to taxonomy and phylogeny are confounded by multiple factors, including the conservative and often convergent morphology of workers and the rarity of reproductive castes in collections. Monophyly of Stenamma and relationships within the genus are uncertain as nearly all previous taxonomic work has been regional in scope. Furthermore, the sister group to Stenamma has not been well established. Here an extensive molecular dataset consisting of ten genes (～8 kb of data), 48 ingroup taxa (20 Nearctic, 6 Palaearctic and 22 Neotropical) and 8 outgroup taxa (6 closely related non‐Stenamma and 2 additional myrmicines) is used to investigate the broad‐scale phylogeny and evolutionary history of Stenamma. Phylogenetic analysis is performed under maximum likelihood and Bayesian frameworks on individual genes and several alternate concatenated datasets, which are used to investigate the effects of inclusion or exclusion of COI and intronic regions. The timing of Stenamma evolution is inferred in beast and ancestral areas are reconstructed using both the s‐diva and DEC methods, as implemented in the programs rasp and lagrange , respectively. Stenamma is revealed as monophyletic with high support and tentatively is sister to a group of New World species placed currently in Aphaenogaster Mayr and Messor Forel. Within Stenamma, two major clades are recovered: a ‘Holarctic clade’ (HOC) and a ‘Middle American clade’ (MAC). The HOC consists of the European S. striatulum Emery sister to two well‐supported groups, the informal ‘debile’ and ‘brevicorne’ clades. The ‘brevicorne’ clade is entirely Nearctic, whereas the ‘debile’ clade includes both Nearctic and Palaearctic representatives. The MAC occurs from the southern United States to northern South America and, with the exception of S. huachucanum Smith, is almost completely isolated geographically from the HOC. It includes a depauperate northern clade and the ‘MAC core’, which is a diverse assemblage of wet forest adapted species found throughout Central America. Divergence dating and biogeographic reconstruction show that Stenamma is most likely to have originated in the Nearctic at the Eocene–Oligocene boundary (～35 Ma) and diversified more rapidly at 16 and 8 Ma for the HOC and MAC, respectively. Potential environmental factors affecting the evolution of Stenamma include the intense global cooling of the late Eocene combined with aridification and mountain building. The phylogenetic results are discussed in relation to the current Stenamma species groups and several new morphological characters are presented to help in identification.     

A new genus of mantidflies discovered in the Oriental region,with a higher‐level phylogeny of Mantispidae (Neuroptera) using DNA sequences and morphology

A remarkable new genus and two new species of Mantispidae (Neuroptera) are described from the Oriental region. Allomantispa Liu, Wu, Winterton & Ohl gen.n. , currently including A. tibetana Liu, Wu & Winterton sp.n. and A. mirimaculata Liu & Ohl sp.n. The new genus is placed in the subfamily Drepanicinae based on a series of morphological characteristics and on the results of total evidence phylogenetic analyses. Bayesian and Parsimony analyses were undertaken using three gene loci (CAD, 16S rDNA and COI) combined with 74 morphological characters from living and fossil exemplars of Mantispidae (17 genera), Rhachiberothidae (two genera) and Berothidae (five genera), with outgroup taxa from Dilaridae and Osmylidae. The resultant phylogeny presented here recovered a monophyletic Mantispidae with ?Mesomantispinae sister to the rest of the family. Relationships among Mantispidae, Rhachiberothidae and Berothidae support Rhachiberothidae as a separate family sister to Mantispidae. Within Mantispidae, Drepanicinae are a monophyletic clade sister to Calomantispinae and Mantispinae. In a combined analysis, Allomantispa gen.n. was recovered in a clade comprising Ditaxis McLachlan from Australia, and two fossil genera from the Palaearctic, ?Promantispa Panfilov (Kazakhstan; late Jurassic) and ?Liassochrysa Ansorge & Schlüter (Germany; Jurassic), suggesting a highly disjunct and relictual distribution for the family. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:464B06E8‐47E6‐482E‐8136‐83FE3B2E9D6B .     

Phylogenetic analysis of the subfamily Alpinioideae (Zingiberaceae), particularly Etlingera Giseke, based on nuclear and plastid DNA

Parsimony analyses based on DNA sequence data of the plastid group II intron rps16 and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) were performed in order to examine the relationship of the pantropical subfamily Alpinioideae in Zingiberaceae (Zingiberales). Special emphasis was given to the large genus Etlingera placed in the tribe Alpinieae. A total of 50 taxa were included in the analysis. The strict consensus tree obtained by combining all data (280 parsimony informative characters of ITS, rps16, and coded indels) is well resolved with strongly supported clades. The subfamily Alpinioideae (excluding Pommereschea and Rhynchanthus) is strongly supported as monophyletic. The basal part of the tree is unresolved but a clade containing the derived genera of Alpinieae (Geocharis, Amomum, Hornstedtia, and Etlingera) is strongly supported. The establishment of Etlingera as the inclusive name for Achasma, Geanthus, and Nicolaia is also strongly supported: Etlingera is monophyletic with Hornstedtia as sister group.     

The systematics of right whales (Mysticeti: Balaenidae)

Balaenidae (right whales) are large, critically endangered baleen whales represented by four living species. The evolutionary relationships of balaenids are poorly known, with the number of genera, relationships to fossil taxa, and position within Mysticeti in contention. This study employs a comprehensive set of morphological characters to address aspects of balaenid phylogeny. A sister‐group relationship between neobalaenids and balaenids is strongly supported, although this conflicts with molecular evidence, which may be an artifact of long‐branch attraction (LBA). Monophyly of Balaenidae is supported, and three major clades are recognized: (1) extinct genus Balaenula, (2) extant and extinct species of the genus Eubalaena, and (3) extant and extinct species of the genus Balaena plus the extinct taxon, Balaenella. The relationships of these clades to one another, as well as to the early Miocene stem balaenid, Morenocetus parvus, remain unresolved. Pliocene taxa, Balaenula astensis and Balaenula balaenopsis, form a clade that is the sister group to the Japanese Pliocene Balaenula sp. Eubalaena glacialis and Pliocene Eubalaena belgica, are in an unresolved polytomy with a clade including E. japonica and E. australis. Extant and fossil species of Balaena form a monophyletic group that is sister group to the Dutch Pliocene Balaenella, although phylogenetic relationships within Balaena remain unresolved.     

The RAG-1 exon in the avian order Caprimulgiformes: phylogeny, heterozygosity, and base composition

We sequenced 2.8 kb of the RAG-1 exon for most of the extant genera in the avian order Caprimulgiformes to investigate monophyly of the order and phylogeny within the traditional families. The order is not monophyletic: the Aegothelidae (owlet-nightjars) were the sister group of the Apodiformes (swifts and hummingbirds). There was no support for the monophyly of a clade containing the remaining families of Caprimulgiformes. However, the RAG-1 data strongly supported a relationship between the Podargidae (frogmouths) and Caprimulgidae (nightjars). Within the Caprimulgidae, the Australasian genus Eurostopodus was sister to the rest of the family, which in turn was composed of four major clades, three of which were restricted to the New World and primarily to the Neotropics. The Old World caprimulgids form a monophyletic clade embedded within the New World taxa; consequently, most Old World nightjars are probably the result of a single expansion out of the Neotropics. The genus Caprimulgus was not found to be monophyletic. Several species in the Caprimulgidae have both elevated heterozygosity and high GC3 content; it is likely that these are causally related.     

Phylogenetic evidence for loss of sound production and a shift in sexual recognition signals in Hamadryas butterflies (Nymphalidae: Biblidinae)

The neotropical butterfly genus Hamadryas Hübner comprises 20 species that exhibit an intriguing variation in their natural history traits. Although revised in 1983, no phylogenetic hypothesis was presented: the first phylogenetic hypothesis is estimated here based on 93 characters and including species from the three other genera in the tribe Ageroniini. The phylogeny is used to test the monophyly of the genus, establish the sister group of Hamadryas and identify its apomorphies. The tree allows the inference of patterns of character change in sound production and sexual dimorphism. Implied weights show that Hamadryas is monophyletic and corroborate Ectima Doubleday as a sister genus. Previously suggested subgenera for Hamadryas were non‐monophyletic, with the exception of the laodamia clade, supported by the presence of a complete sterigma. Sound production is inferred to be a derived condition in Hamadryas that has been lost in the laodamia clade. This, plus the presence of androconial organs and sexual dimorphism in the laodamia clade, suggests a shift in sexual recognition signalling. Furthermore, the phylogeny indicates that the colour pattern of males in the laodamia clade is novel, supporting a Darwinian origin of sexual dimorphism.     

Phylogeny and species delimitation of North European Lumbricillus (Clitellata,Enchytraeidae)

The enchytraeid genus Lumbricillus comprises about 80 described species of clitellate worms, which are up to a few centimetres long, and they mostly inhabit the littoral zone of non‐tropical marine and brackish waters world‐wide. The phylogeny of this genus is poorly studied, but previous work has suggested that Lumbricillus is a non‐monophyletic group. In this study, species boundaries and the phylogeny of this genus is re‐assessed using more than 300 DNA‐barcoded specimens (using COI mtDNA), part of which was also sequenced for two additional mitochondrial and four nuclear molecular markers. Statistical and coalescent based applications were used for the delimitation of a total of 24 species, of which 20 were identified as belonging to 17 described morphospecies; one morphospecies was found to be a complex of four delimited species, and another four delimited species could not be matched with any described species. Furthermore, gene trees, concatenation and multispecies coalescent based species trees were estimated using Bayesian inference. The estimated phylogenies confirm a non‐monophyletic Lumbricillus as L. semifuscus is clearly excluded from the genus. Furthermore, the placement of a monophyletic clade consisting of L. arenarius, L. dubius, and an unidentified species varies between analyses; they are either found as the sister‐group to the genus Grania or as sister‐group to the remaining Lumbricillus, where the latter relationship is supported by the multispecies coalescent, which we consider as the most reliable method.     

Molecular Phylogeny of Coral-Reef Sea Cucumbers (Holothuriidae: Aspidochirotida) Based on 16S Mitochondrial Ribosomal DNA Sequence

Members of the Holothuriidae, found globally at low to middle latitudes, are often a dominant component of Indo–West Pacific coral reefs. We present the first phylogeny of the group, using 8 species from the 5 currently recognized genera and based on approximately 540 nucleotides from a polymerase chain reaction–amplified and conserved 3′ section of 16S mitochondrial ribosomal DNA. Parsimony and likelihood analyses returned identical topologies, permitting several robust inferences to be drawn. Several points corroborated the Linnean classification. Actinopyga and Bohadschia each appear monophyletic and Pearsonothuria is sister to Bohadschia. Other aspects of our phylogeny, however, were not in accord with the taxonomy of Holothuriidae or previous speculations about the group’s evolutionary history. Most notably, the genus Holothuria appears paraphyletic. Actinopyga and Bohadschia, sometimes held to be closely related to one another because of certain morphologic similarities, are only distantly related. The morphologically distinct Labidodemas, even thought to warrant separation at the family level, is nested well within Holothuria. A maximum parsimony reconstruction of ancestral ossicle form on the phylogeny indicated that, in addition to a probable bout of elaboration in ossicle form (the modification of rods or rosettes to holothuriid-type buttons), at least 2 rounds of ossicle simplification also transpired in which buttons reverted to rods or rosettes. Cuvierian tubules, defensive organs unique to numerous members of Holothuriidae, were probably present before the initial radiation of the family, but the reconstruction is ambiguous as to their ancestral function.     

Phylogeny and phylogeography of the Mediterranean species of the parasitic ant genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chalepoxenus</Emphasis> and its <Emphasis Type="Italic">Temnothorax</Emphasis> hosts

We analysed the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationships of four Mediterranean species of the rare slave-making ant genus Chalepoxenus and eleven of its about 20 Temnothorax host species by sequencing the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I and II genes. Neighbour-Joining, Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian analyses based on 1320 bp indicate that the genus Chalepoxenus constitutes a monophylum. In all three analyses, C. kutteri from Southwest Europe and the workerless, “degenerate slavemaker” C. brunneus from North Africa form a monophyletic group. C. muellerianus and C. tauricus, distributed in Southern Europe and Ukraine, respectively, form a monophylum in the Neighbour-Joining and the Maximum Parsimony analysis. In our limited set of only 11 of several hundred Temnothorax species, T. flavicornis forms the sister group of Chalepoxenus. Our study further indicates paraphyly of the genus Temnothorax with respect to Chalepoxenus. Moreover, the results suggest that speciation in this slave-making genus is possibly caused by the formation of host races as different Chalepoxenus species use different hosts, and some samples seem to cluster by host species rather than by geographical distance. Received 5 September 2006; revised 17 March 2007; accepted 23 March 2007.     

Phylogenetic Framework for Trema (Celtidaceae)

We used ITS and trnL sequence data, analyzed separately and combined by MP, to explore species relationships and concepts in Trema (Celtidaceae), a pantropical genus of pioneer trees. Whether Trema is monophyletic or includes Parasponia is still unresolved. Three clades within Trema received moderate to high support, one from the New World and two from the Old World, but their relationships were not resolved. In the New World, specimens of T. micrantha formed two groups consistent with endocarp morphology. Group I, with smaller brown endocarps, is a highly supported clade sister to T. lamarckiana. Group II, with larger black endocarps, is poorly resolved with several subclades, including the highly supported T. integerrima clade. Both Old World clades contain Asian and African species, with three or more species in each region. Trema orientalis is not monophyletic: specimens from Africa formed a highly supported clade sister to T. africana, while those from Asia were sister to T. aspera from Australia.     

Phylogeny of the family Sialidae (Insecta: Megaloptera) inferred from morphological data,with implications for generic classification and historical biogeography

Sialidae (alderflies) is a family of the holometabolous insect order Megaloptera, with ca. 75 extant species in eight genera distributed worldwide. Alderflies are a group of “living fossils” with a long evolutionary history. The oldest fossil attributed to Sialidae dates back to the Early Jurassic period. Further, the global distribution of modern‐day species shows a remarkably disjunctive pattern. However, due to the rareness of most species and scarcity of comprehensive taxonomic revisions, the phylogeny of Sialidae remains largely unexplored, and the present classification system is in great need of renewal. Here we reconstruct the first phylogeny for Sialidae worldwide based on the most comprehensive sampling and broadest morphological data ever presented for this group of insects. All Cenozoic alderflies belong to a monophyletic clade, which may also include the Early Jurassic genus ?Dobbertinia, and the Late Jurassic genus ?Sharasialis is their putative sister taxon. Two subfamilies of Sialidae are proposed, namely ?Sharasialinae subfam. nov. and Sialidinae. Austrosialis is the sister of all other extant genera, an assemblage which comprises three monophyletic lineages: the Stenosialis lineage, the Ilyobius lineage, and the Sialis lineage. The revised classification of Sialidae is composed of 12 valid genera and 87 valid species. Ilyobius and Protosialis are recognized as valid generic names, while Nipponosialis is treated as a synonym of Sialis. Reconstruction of the ancestral area proposes a global distribution of alderflies in Pangaea before their diversification. The generic diversification of alderflies might have occurred before the breakup of Pangaea, but the divergence of some lineages or genera was probably promoted by the splitting of this supercontinent.     

Molecular phylogeny of Phebalium (Rutaceae: Boronieae) and related genera based on the nrDNA regions ITS 1+2

Parsimony analyses of the internal transcribed spacer regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS 1 & ITS 2) for 38 taxa sampled from the Phebalium group (Rutaceae: Boronieae) and two outgroups confirm that, with the exception of Phebalium sensu stricto and Rhadinothamnus, six of the currently recognised genera within the group are monophyletic. The data indicate that Phebaliums. str. is paraphyletic with respect to Microcybe, and Rhadinothamnus is paraphyletic with respect to Chorilaena. Rhadinothamnus and Chorilaena together are the sister group to Nematolepis. Drummondita, included as an outgroup taxon, clustered within the ingroup as sister to Muiriantha and related to Asterolasia.The phylogeny suggests that the evolution of major clades within a number of these genera (e.g. Phebalium) relates to vicariance events between eastern and south-western Australia. Leionema is an eastern genus, with the most basal taxon being the morphologically distinct Leionema ellipticum from northern Queensland. Leionema also includes one species from New Zealand, but this species (as with some others) proved difficult to sequence and its phylogenetic position remains unknown. Taxonomic changes at the generic level are recommended.The authors wish to thank Paul G.Wilson, PERTH, for advice and discussion, and Paul Forster, BRI, for collecting and providing material of Leionema ellipticum. The project was supported by a Melbourne University Postgraduate Award (to BM), the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), Australian Systematic Botany Society and Wolf Den (Australia) Investments.     

PHYLOGENY OF THE EUGLENOID LORICATE GENERA TRACHELOMONAS AND STROMBOMONAS (EUGLENOPHYTA) INFERRED FROM NUCLEAR SSU AND LSU rDNA1

Previous studies using the nuclear SSU rDNA and partial LSU rDNA have demonstrated that the euglenoid loricate taxa form a monophyletic clade within the photosynthetic euglenoid lineage. It was unclear, however, whether the loricate genera Trachelomonas and Strombomonas were monophyletic. In order to determine the relationships among the loricate taxa, SSU and LSU nuclear rDNA sequences were obtained for eight Strombomonas and 25 Trachelomonas strains and combined in a multigene phylogenetic analysis. Conserved regions of the aligned data set were used to generate maximum‐likelihood (ML) and Bayesian phylogenies. Both methods recovered a strongly supported monophyletic loricate clade with Strombomonas and Trachelomonas species separated into two sister clades. Taxa in the genus Strombomonas sorted into three subclades. Within the genus Trachelomonas, five strongly supported subclades were recovered in all analyses. Key morphological features could be attributed to each of the subclades, with the major separation being that all of the spine‐bearing taxa were located in two sister subclades, while the more rounded, spineless taxa formed the remaining three subclades. The separation of genera and subclades was supported by 42 distinct molecular signatures (33 in Trachelomonas and nine in Strombomonas). The morphological and molecular data supported the retention of Trachelomonas and Strombomonas as separate loricate genera.     

A morphological phylogeny of Agrotis Ochsenheimer (Lepidoptera,Noctuidae), with emphasis on the South American species

The monophyly of Agrotis Ochsenheimer in addition to the relationships among the South American species of the genus and the relationship between Agrotis and Feltia Walker are examined. A cladistic analysis was performed based on 45 terminals, with 28 ingroup and 17 outgroup taxa, and 126 characters (two continuous and 124 discrete) from adult morphology, including male and female genitalia. Parsimony analyses were performed under equal and implied weighting. Results support Agrotis as a monophyletic group, sister to the South American species of Feltia (Feltia tent.), and the latter being more closely related to Agrotis than to the ‘true’ Feltia. Species of Agrotis that branched off first (including the type species) have characters shared with both Feltia and Agrotis. South American species of Agrotis (with some proviso) form a clade that branched off later, with some weakly supported species groups that had been proposed in previous works. Biogeographical aspects of the group are discussed after optimizing species distributions on the tree. Trees obtained after analyses using implied weights show similar relationships to those under equal weights, particularly regarding Feltia tent., showing Feltia tent. plus Agrotis forming a monophyletic group, sister to the ‘true’ Feltia.