Agathiphaga wing vestiture revisited: evidence for complex early evolutionof lepidopteran scales (Lepidoptera : Agathiphagidae)

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.