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Title: Revised status of Chloridea Westwood and [Duncan], 1841 for the Heliothis virescens species group and the monophyly of Schinia Hubner [1818] using total evidence data (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Heliothinae)

Author
item Pogue, Michael

Submitted to: Systematic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/14/2012
Publication Date: 3/28/2013
Citation: Pogue, M.G. 2013. Revised status of Chloridea Westwood and [Duncan], 1841 for the Heliothis virescens species group and the monophyly of Schinia Hubner [1818] using total evidence data (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Heliothinae). Systematic Entomology. 38(3):523-542.

Interpretive Summary: Cutworm moths are major agricultural pests, with species such as the corn earworm and tobacco budworm destroying billions of dollars worth of corn, cotton, tobacco, and other crops on an annual basis worldwide. Three genes and a morphological data set were used to analyze the validity of the present generic concept that includes the tobacco budworm and its relatives. This research determined that the present generic concept of the tobacco budworm and its relatives is incorrect. An older genus that had been synonymized was revised to include the tobacco budworm and its relatives. The results also show that the corn earworm and tobacco budworm are more closely related than previously thought. These results will be important to economic entomologists, pest management specialists, molecular systematists, and IPM specialists.

Technical Abstract: The Heliothinae comprise some of the world’s most injurious agricultural pests. This study reanalyses a subsample of the Heliothis group of Cho et al. (2008) to determine the monophyly of Chloridea (Heliothis virescens and H. subflexa). Two nuclear gene regions, elongation factor-1a (EF-1a; 1240 bp) and dopa decarboylase (DDC; 687 bp), and the barcoding region of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI; 708 bp), for a total of 2635 bp and a morphological data set of 20 characters and 62 character states were used in this analysis. A total of 16 species representing five genera plus two outgroup species were used in the analysis. Analyses used were Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum Likelihood (ML), and Bayesian Inference (BI). The revised status, for the monophyletic genus, Chloridea Duncan and [Westwood], was supported by a very strong bootstrap support (BP=100).