Phylogeny and divergence time estimation of Io moths and relatives (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae: Automeris)

Chelsea Skojec; Chandra Earl; Christian D Couch; Paul Masonick; Akito Y Kawahara

doi:10.7717/peerj.17365

Phylogeny and divergence time estimation of Io moths and relatives (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae: Automeris)

PeerJ. 2024 May 30:12:e17365. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17365. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Chelsea Skojec^{1

2}, Chandra Earl³, Christian D Couch^{1

2}, Paul Masonick¹, Akito Y Kawahara^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of America.
² Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of America.
³ Bishop Museum, Bernice Pauahi, Honolulu, HI, United States of America.

Abstract

The saturniid moth genus Automeris includes 145 described species. Their geographic distribution ranges from the eastern half of North America to as far south as Peru. Automeris moths are cryptically colored, with forewings that resemble dead leaves, and conspicuously colored, elaborate eyespots hidden on their hindwings. Despite their charismatic nature, the evolutionary history and relationships within Automeris and between closely related genera, remain poorly understood. In this study, we present the most comprehensive phylogeny of Automeris to date, including 80 of the 145 described species. We also incorporate two morphologically similar hemileucine genera, Pseudautomeris and Leucanella, as well as a morphologically distinct genus, Molippa. We obtained DNA data from both dry-pinned and ethanol-stored museum specimens and conducted Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) sequencing to assemble a high-quality dataset for phylogenetic analysis. The resulting phylogeny supports Automeris as a paraphyletic genus, with Leucanella and Pseudautomeris nested within, with the most recent common ancestor dating back to 21 mya. This study lays the foundation for future research on various aspects of Automeris biology, including geographical distribution patterns, potential drivers of speciation, and ecological adaptations such as antipredator defense mechanisms.

Keywords: Anti-predation; Dating; Deimatism; Evolution; Eyespots; Moths; Museums.

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution
Moths* / anatomy & histology
Moths* / classification
Moths* / genetics
Phylogeny*

Associated data

Dryad/10.5061/dryad.547d7wmf6

Grants and funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 00130513 to Chelsea Skojec. Sequencing for this project was supported by the National Science Foundation DEB 1557007 to Akito Y. Kawahara. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.