THE BOMBYCOIDEA - PHYLOGENY AND HIGHER CLASSIFICATION (LEPIDOPTERA, GLOSSATA)

This paper is chiefly aimed at reassessing the limits of four bombycoi d families, namely the Eupterotidae, Saturniidae, Lemoniidae, and Brah maeidae. An incompletely resolved cladogram is proposed for the whole 'bombycoid complex' (Mimallonoidea + Lasiocampoidea + Bombycoidea). Wi thin the Bombycoidea, the primary dichotomy is considered to lie betwe en the Eupterotidae + Bombycidae s.lat. + Endromidae + Mirinidae + Sat urniidae, and the Carthaeidae + Lemoniidae + Brahmaeidae + Sphingidae. Sharing at least nine synapomorphies, the Lemoniidae and Brahmaeidae are regarded as reliable sister groups, and the Lemoniidae + Brahmaeid ae are proposed as a sister group to the Sphingidae. Another newly pro posed clade groups together the Endromidae, Mirinidae and Saturniidae. At family level, the Hibrildidae are synonymized with the Eupterotida e (syn. n.), for which the most significant autapomorphy lies in a pre viously unnoticed particularity of the female hind leg (distitarsus ty pically provided with a midventral row of spines). Sexual dimorphism i n leg structure also leads to a redefinition of the Saturniidae, a fam ily which must include, with subfamily rank (stat. rev.), the 'Oxyteni dae' and 'Cercophanidae' of modern authors. A pair of distal, tooth-li ke structures on the fourth tarsomere of the female fore leg can thus be ascribed to the ground plan of the Saturniidae, along with a few ot her convincing autapomorphies. On the other hand, the 'Apatelodidae' a re only tentatively placed in the 'Bombycidae sensu lato', a group pro visionally resurrected insofar as the Apatelodidae sensu auct. prove t o be diphyletic. As a matter of fact, the 'apatelodid' subfamily Epiin ae is synonymized with the Bombycinae (syn. n.) in consideration of a rather large number of synapomorphies. When more extensively studied, the morphology of the eighth sternum of the male abdomen might lead to a slightly different, more restricted, concept of the Bombycidae (i.e . excluding 'true' Apatelodidae). Often regarded as incertae sedis, th e African genera Sabalia Walker and Spiramiopsis Hampson are definitel y assigned to the Lemoniidae and Brahmaeidae respectively. Autapomorph ies of these two families are recorded and discussed, as are those fou nd to characterize the Sphingidae. Three subfamilies are tentatively r ecognized within the latter (Smerinthinae stat. rev., Sphinginae, Macr oglossinae), five within the Eupterotidae (Hibrildinae, Tissanginae, J aninae, Panacelinae, Eupterotinae), and four within the Bombycidae s.l at. (Apatelodinae, Phiditiinae subfam. n., Prismostictinae [= Oberthue riinae, syn. rev.], Bombycinae). Three of these subfamilies are consid ered in a new sense, viz. the Panacelinae, Apatelodinae, and Bombycina e. Although the phylogeny of the Saturniidae is not fully taken into a ccount in the present study, the composition of three saturniid subfam ilies is critically examined (Oxyteninae, Cercophaninae, Ludiinae), an d the Oxyteninae are viewed as the most 'primitive' member of the fami ly.