Tj. Simonsen et Np. Kristensen, Agathiphaga wing vestiture revisited: evidence for complex early evolutionof lepidopteran scales (Lepidoptera : Agathiphagidae), IN SYST EVO, 32(2), 2001, pp. 169-175
Agathiphaga moths lack microtrichiation on most of the fore-wing upperside
(apart from a basal anterior area), while it well developed on the hind-win
g upperside and on the underside of both wing pairs. Scales on the fore-win
g upperside largely occur in clusters, which then often comprise one larger
, notched/truncate and pigmented 'cover' scale, and one or more smaller, we
akly pigmented/unpigmented, smoothly rounded 'ground' scale. The former sca
le type proved to be hollow and have trabeculae in the inner lumen. However
, it has no perforations in the abwing lamella; hence the absence of such p
erforations (ore even vestiges thereof, in the form of small depressions) f
rom a scale is not necessarily indicative that it is of the solid type. The
ground scales, like all hind-wing and underside scales, are of the commonp
lace solid type which is of general occurrence in non-glossatan moths. Evol
utionary aspects of scale morphology in basal moths are discussed. The orig
in of hollow wing-surface scales cannot have been a single, unreversed even
t, but independent evolution of this scale types in the Agathiphagidae and
the Coelolepida (= Acanthopteroctetidae + Lophocoronidae + Myoglossata) rem
ains the most parsimonious assumption.