Origin of the terrestrial Paracymoriza

• Main Authors: Li-Cheng Shih, 施禮正
• Other Authors: Shen-Horn Yen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/79490744827067967985

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 生物科學系研究所 === 99 === The Acentropinae represents a species-rich crambid group with more than 700 species distributed in all the zoogeographic regions except Antarctica, and the highest diversity occurs in the Oriental, Indo-Autralian and Neotropical regions. Most caterpillars of Acentropinae are widely adapted to feed on vegetation in different types of aquatic environments, such as ponds, streams and rivers. However, some of them are known to utilize mosses on land. Therefore the evolutionary relationships between the terrestrial and aquatic lineage become intriguing. The genus Paracymoriza Warren, 1890, is a moderate-sized acentropine genus comprising 39 species ranging throughout southeast and east Asia. Historically the genus was often confused with many unrelated genera due to the superficial resemblance in wing maculation, which is termed the “nymphuliform wing pattern”. The genus is currently divided into 8 species groups, with 5 of them known having aquatic immature stages, while the others having terrestrial immatures. The fact that Paracymoriza includes both truly aquatic and terrestrial species represents a unique case for the Lepidoptera, thus making the monophyly of the genus doubtful. In the present study, a phylogenetic hypothesis Paracymoriza was reconstructed by using morphological characters including wing pattern and immature stage characters obtained from 63 species representing 25 acentropine genera. The results suggest that Paracymoriza is monophyletic. The genus is composed of two major clades: one aquatic, and the other terrestrial. It suggests that Paracymoriza represents a unique example with amphibious immature stage in the Lepidoptera although the tree support values of this phylogenetic hypothesis remains relatively weak due to large amount of homoplasious characters.