Morphological evolution in Hyles Hübner, 1819 hawkmoths (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae): reconstructing the ancestral Hyles habitus

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Abstract

Molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that similar wing and body patterns in the hawkmoth genus Hyles Hübner, [1819] do not necessarily reflect a close phylogenetic relationship. To improve our understanding of morphological evolution in these organisms, 75 characters derived from the external adult morphology are explicitly coded and analysed in a maximum parsimony cladistic framework. The results corroborate the hypothesis that wing and body patterns have indeed reappeared in different parts of the phylogeny but the underlying genetic mechanism remains to be determined. By reconstructing the suite of ancestral states of the morphological characters using Bayesian inference, we derived an approximation of the appearance of the proto-Hyles species. The overall habitus of this moth does not display a combination of characters found in any extant Hyles species. Rather, the forewings are most like those of members of the Hyles euphorbiae-complex but with better developed antemedial and postmedial lines, the hindwings are typical Hyles, and the abdominal pattern most closely resembles that of Hyles euphorbiarum (Guérin-Méneville & Percheron, 1835), but with one fewer pairs of black subdorsal patches. Within the context of the subtribe Choerocampina and Sphingidae more generally, the proto-Hyles reconstruction does not resemble any other species apart from Rhodafra opheltes (Cramer, 1780), but this appears to be another instance of convergent pattern expression.

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Logical basis for morphological characters in phylogenetics

Paul C. Sereno (2007)

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A revised molecular phylogeny of the globally distributed hawkmoth genus Hyles (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences.

Anna Hundsdoerfer, Daniel Rubinoff, Marc Attié … (2009)

The hawkmoth genus Hyles comprises some 29 species with a global distribution. In this study, we augment the previous taxon sampling with more species and add sequences from a nuclear gene to produce a refined phylogenetic hypothesis. A total evidence reconstruction based on Bayesian analysis of the combined mitochondrial (COI, t-RNA-Leu, COII; 2284 bp) and nuclear (EF1alpha; 773 bp) sequences is discussed and compared with the results from separate analyses of the two genes. The total evidence phylogeny corroborates many of the phylogenetic relationships previously postulated within the genus. In addition, the hitherto unsampled enigmatic species Hyles biguttata from Madagascar appears as sister group to Hyles livornicoides from Australia, although support for the relationship is relatively weak. The high level of differentiation of Hyles perkinsi from H. calida (both Hawaii), and the status of these two as sister species, is corroborated by both sources of sequence data. However, their phylogenetic position when mt DNA sequences alone are considered differs markedly from that under total evidence. The previously postulated relationships within the Hyles euphorbiae complex (HEC) s.s. are largely corroborated, but H. dahlii is now more closely related and the HEC s.l. is redefined to include H. zygophylli and H. stroehlei (two species that had not been studied previously using molecular data) and to exclude H. siehei and H. hippophaes. The nuclear sequences alone are insufficiently variable to fully resolve all lineages and the phylogeny suggests that nuclear gene swapping and incomplete lineage sorting have occurred implying recent divergence. The results from the total evidence analysis provide a phylogenetic hypothesis that both corroborates and complements the previous biogeographic scenario, and provides new insights into the origins of several of the included taxa.

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Genome-wide SNP Data Reveal an Overestimation of Species Diversity in a Group of Hawkmoths

Anna Hundsdoerfer, Kyung Lee, Ian J. Kitching … (2019)

Abstract The interface between populations and evolving young species continues to generate much contemporary debate in systematics depending on the species concept(s) applied but which ultimately reduces to the fundamental question of “when do nondiscrete entities become distinct, mutually exclusive evolutionary units”? Species are perceived as critical biological entities, and the discovery and naming of new species is perceived by many authors as a major research aim for assessing current biodiversity before much of it becomes extinct. However, less attention is given to determining whether these names represent valid biological entities because this is perceived as both a laborious chore and an undesirable research outcome. The charismatic spurge hawkmoths (Hyles euphorbiae complex, HEC) offer an opportunity to study this less fashionable aspect of systematics. To elucidate this intriguing systematic challenge, we analyzed over 10,000 ddRAD single nucleotide polymorphisms from 62 individuals using coalescent-based and population genomic methodology. These genome-wide data reveal a clear overestimation of (sub)species-level diversity and demonstrate that the HEC taxonomy has been seriously oversplit. We conclude that only one valid species name should be retained for the entire HEC, namely Hyles euphorbiae, and we do not recognize any formal subspecies or other taxonomic subdivisions within it. Although the adoption of genetic tools has frequently revealed morphologically cryptic diversity, the converse, taxonomic oversplitting of species, is generally (and wrongly in our opinion) accepted as rare. Furthermore, taxonomic oversplitting is most likely to have taken place in intensively studied popular and charismatic organisms such as the HEC.