I am working on Spilomelinae and Pyraustinae moths from India and I am following 'old school' approach towards identifying my moths. I am following classification as proposed by Hampson, 1896. Sir Hampson laid emphasis on wing venation as delimiting character at generic level. If I move in that direction I get the expected results.
But as there has been appreciable progress in genitalic terminology, I find that wing venation has very little to do with delimiting the generic status as many related genera have same or insignificantly little variation from each other.
Comments , critiques and suggestion are welcomed !
Dear Harsimran,
The attached paper may be of some help.
Good luck!
Dear Harsimran,
I think that importance of that trait depends on moth family (and probably geographical region as well). In my opinion in some families (e.g. Psychidae) it is much more important than in others. I never worked with your (sub)families thus I can't say anything specific.
Following your reasoning about change/progress in taxonomy brought by studying of genitalia: if you consider DNA based system, it may happen that genera don't have too many common wing venation traits at all .... I don't know any paper comparing moth DNA taxonomy and moth morphological taxonomy based on wing venation but this is my feeling based on changes in plant taxonomy brought by molecular studies.
Summarizing: in my opinion if you are successfull in the field of "venation classification" then keep this line.
Bogdan
It is very interesting problem. Under years I am engaged in wings of Tenebrionidae and in my opinion, the general disposition of venation is similar in alate genera, but to specific level, this character combined with male and female genitalia is useful to establish the taxonomic rang of very close or similar taxa.
Dear colleague,
your question is quite interesting. From a general point of view I would say that after decades of practice there is the general perception that no single morphological trait may work well for all purposes (e.g. diagnosis) at all taxonomic levels for all taxa.
Wing venation may be more important at some levels and no so much elsewhere; however the trait was strongly supported as useful at high taxonomic levels since long ago as it is relatively evident in the Lepidoptera and other insect Orders.
There are presently many studies based in DNA, and in theory these will eventually lead to classifications that are most reliable from the phylogenetic point of view. However, the results of such studies cannot be compared with equivalent morphological ones due to the lack of detailed information on morphology (adults, larva, eggs and pupae). Thus I think it would be a good idea to collect morphological traits of all the different kinds first, then analysing them properly (e.g. in a cladistic framework), then deciding on the results. These data could in the long term be compared with DNA-based results, and would provide potential apomorphic traits...
So in general my opinion would be not to restrict your work to just venation, but to focus on all available morphological details... although of course this is a long lasting task!
My very best wishes
I completely agree. It is exactly the long way to go, establishing available characters in basic Taxonomy, before molecular Analyses. Contrarily, without taxonomic results, DNA indicate a specific identity, but the real species name remain unknown or confused. In Forensic the case is similar finding human DNA in a victim, but ignoring the identity of the person victimizing the corpse.
Check also this paper:
Albrecht, A. & Kaila, L. (1997) Variation of wing venation in Elachistidae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea): methodology and implications to systematics. Systematic Entomology 22, 185-198.
I think Enrique's response is very good.
In my experience a character or character system that is very good for, say, separation of species or genera in one group may often be poor or unreliable in a related group. In the specific case of wing venation characters in Lepidoptera, while they are often of great use and informative, they can also be misleading. de Jong et al (1966) found that in butterflies wing venation characters, although very useful, were the most homoplasious compared with other sorts of anatomical characters observed in the adult insects.
de Jong, R., Vane-Wright, R.I. & Ackery, P.R. 1996. The higher classification of butterflies: problems and prospects. Entomologica Scandinavica 27(1): 65–101.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Invertebrate Zoology
- Entomology
- Insect
- Neoptera
- Holometabola
- Moths