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Interspecific variation in body size is one of the most popular topics in comparative studies. Despite recent advances, little is known about the patterns and processes behind the evolution of body size in insects. Here, we used a robust data set comprising all geometrid moth species occurring in Northern Europe to examine the evolutionary associations involving body size and several life-history traits under an explicitly phylogenetic framework. We provided new insights into the interactive effects of life-history traits on body size and evidence of correlated evolution. We further established the sequence of trait evolution linking body size with the life-history traits correlated with it. We found that most (but not all) of the studied life-history traits, to some extent, influenced interspecific variation in body size, but interactive effects were uncommon. Both bi- and multivariate phylogenetic analyses indicated that larger species tend to be nocturnal flyers, overwinter in the larval stage, feed on the foliage of trees rather than herbs, and have a generalist feeding behaviour. We found evidence of correlated evolution involving body size with overwintering stage, host-plant growth form, and dietary specialization. The examination of evolutionary transitions within the correlated evolution models signalled that overwintering as larvae commonly preceded the evolution of large sizes, as did feeding on tree foliage and the generalist feeding behaviour. By showing that both body size and all life-history traits correlated with it evolve at very slow rates, we caution against uncritical attempts to propose causal explanations for respective associations based on contemporary ecological settings., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Locomotory performance is an important determinant of fitness in most animals, including flying insects. Strong selective pressures on wing morphology are therefore expected. Previous studies on wing shape in Lepidoptera have found some support for hypotheses relating wing shape to environment-specific selective pressures on aerodynamic performance. Here, we present a phylogenetic comparative study on wing shape in the lepidopteran family Geometridae, covering 374 species of the northern European fauna. We focused on 11 wing traits including aspect ratio, wing roundness, and the pointedness of the apex, as well as the ratio of forewing and hindwing areas. All measures were taken from images available on the internet, using a combination of tools available in Fiji software and R. We found that wing shape demonstrates a phylogenetically conservative pattern of evolution in Geometridae, showing similar or stronger phylogenetic signal than many of its potential predictors. Several wing traits showed statistically significant associations with predictors such as body size, phenology, and preference for forest habitats. Overall, however, all of these associations remained notably weak, with no wing shape being excluded for any value of the predictors, including body size. We conclude that, in geometrids, wing traits do not readily respond to selective pressures optimizing aerodynamic performance of the moths in different environments. Selection on wing shape may nevertheless operate through other functions of the wings, with the effectiveness of crypsis at rest being a promising candidate for further studies., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Ecological and life-history data on the Northern European macromoth (Lepidoptera: Macroheterocera) fauna is widely available and ideal for use in answering phylogeny-based research questions: for example, in comparative biology. However, phylogenetic information for such studies lags behind. Here, as a synthesis of all currently available phylogenetic information on the group, we produce a supertree of 114 Northern European macromoth genera (in four superfamilies, with Geometroidea considered separately), providing the most complete phylogenetic picture of this fauna available to date. In doing so, we assess those parts of the phylogeny that are well resolved and those that are uncertain. Furthermore, we identify those genera for which phylogenetic information is currently too poor to include in such a supertree, or entirely absent, as targets for future work. As an aid to studies involving these genera, we provide information on their likely positions within the macromoth tree. With phylogenies playing an ever more important role in the field, this supertree should be useful in informing future ecological and evolutionary studies., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Nola estonica unap sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Nolidae, Nolinae) is described based on type material from Estonia. The lectotype is designated for Glaphyra atomosa Bremer, 1861, which is reinstated from a subspecies of Nola aerugula (Hbner, [1793]) to a full species: Nola atomosa (Bremer, 1861) stat. rev. The status of these three taxa as separate species is supported by the results of phylogenetic analysis of DNA barcodes, as well as external and genital morphology of adult specimens. Two new synonyms are established as follows: Nola atomosa (Bremer, 1861) = Nola candidalis Staudinger, 1892 syn. nov. and Nola shin Inoue, 1982 syn. nov. N. estonica occurs sympatrically with N. aerugula in Estonia, and with N. atomosa in South Korea and easternmost Russia. While the available data suggest a disjunct distribution of N. estonica (eastern Europe and the temperate Far East), it appears highly possible that the species has a wide transpalaearctic distribution.

Understanding how and why some groups have become more species-rich than others, and how past biogeography may have shaped their current distribution, are questions that evolutionary biologists have long attempted to answer. We investigated diversification patterns and historical biogeography of a hyperdiverse lineage of Lepidoptera, the geometrid moths, by studying its most species-rich tribe Boarmiini, which comprises ca. 200 genera and ca. known 3000 species. We inferred the evolutionary relationships of Boarmiini based on a dataset of 346 taxa, with up to eight genetic markers under a maximum likelihood approach. The monophyly of Boarmiini is strongly supported. However, the phylogenetic position of many taxa does not agree with current taxonomy, although the monophyly of most major genera within the tribe is supported after minor adjustments. Three genera are synonymized, one new combination is proposed, and four species are placed in incertae sedis within Boarmiini. Our results support the idea of a rapid initial diversification of Boarmiini, which also implies that no major taxonomic subdivisions of the group can currently be proposed. A time-calibrated tree and biogeographical analyses suggest that boarmiines appeared in Laurasia ca. 52 Mya, followed by dispersal events throughout the Australasian, African and Neotropical regions. Most of the transcontinental dispersal events occurred in the Eocene, a period of intense geological activity and rapid climate change. Diversification analyses showed a relatively constant diversification rate for all Boarmiini, except in one clade containing the species-rich genus Cleora. The present work represents a substantial contribution towards understanding the evolutionary origin of Boarmiini moths. Our results, inevitably biased by taxon sampling, highlight the difficulties with working on species-rich groups that have not received much attention outside of Europe. Specifically, poor knowledge of the natural history of geometrids (particularly in tropical clades) limits our ability to identify key innovations underlying the diversification of boarmiines., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Specificity is one of the fundamental concepts in ecology. Host specificity of phytophagous insects has been of particular interest because of its crucial role in diversification and life-history evolution. However, the majority of tropical insects remain insufficiently explored with respect to their host-plant relations. A lack of respective data is also hindering the debate over whether higher levels of host-plant specificity prevail in tropical insects compared to temperate ones. We investigated host-plant specificity of forest geometrid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in equatorial Africa using host-plant acceptability trials with neonate larvae, with the addition of field observations. We compare our experimental data to the (well-known) host-specificity patterns of closely related temperate (hemiboreal) species. Similarly to the temperate region, there were broadly polyphagous tropical species in several clades of Geometridae utilizing hosts belonging to different plant families. Phylogenetic comparative analysis returned no significant differences in host specificity between the two regions. Our study contributes to the evidence that host-plant specificity of herbivores is not necessarily substantially higher in tropical than temperate regions., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America.)

Sex-specific mechanisms of the determination of insect body sizes are insufficiently understood. Here we use the common heath moth, Ematurga atomaria (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) to examine how larval growth trajectories differ between males and females. We monitored the development of 1379 larvae in controlled laboratory conditions. Sexually dimorphic development times during the first four instars were associated with sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in the beginning of the fifth (last) instar, when females were on average 15% heavier than males. Similarly, the duration of the last instar was about 13% longer in females. Further, we specifically focussed on the estimates of differential (instantaneous) growth rates of the larvae based on 24h mass increments of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th day in the beginning of the last instar. We calculated 'allometric' differential growth rates as the per-day increase in cube-root-transformed mass of the larvae. We found that allometric growth rates were slightly but significantly larger in females than in males. As this measure of growth rate (in contrast to the relative growth rate, based on the ratio of masses recorded at consecutive measurements) did not depend on body size, it allows an unambiguous separation of the effects of sex and size. We conclude that in accordance with an emerging general pattern, larger female body size in E. atomaria is achieved primarily by means of a longer growth period. Furthermore, our study shows that the differential growth rate can also be sexually dimorphic and contribute to SSD. This contribution, however, is lower than that of the development time by an order of magnitude. In addition to development periods and growth rates, other parameters of the non-linear growth curves of insect larvae also need to be considered in the context of SSD determination. In particular, weight loss prior to pupation was shown to be considerably larger in females than in males., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Diet breadth and the degree of capital breeding have been established as major determinants of species-specific ecology of herbivorous insects. Both of these variables are related to resource foraging and therefore can be expected to have effects on sensory capacity. However, such effects have remained poorly studied, let alone in phylogenetically explicit multi-species comparisons. We contribute to filling this gap in a study of 60 species of geometrid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), using adult head measures (eye size, antennal length and shape, forehead width) as indices of sensory capacity. When controlled for body size, eyes of the more capital breeding species (i.e. those with low contribution of adult feeding to reproduction) were found to be smaller, and female antennae shorter, than in income breeders. Feathery (vs simple filiform) male antennae were more frequently present in the capital breeders and in larger species. Regarding diet breadth, generalist species were found to have relatively wider male foreheads than specialists. The results suggest that (a) breeding strategy rather than diet breadth predicts sensory capacity in geometrids, (b) capital breeding (vs income breeding) is related to low sensory capacity in females, and (c) in contrast, males of the capital breeding species have evolved towards elevated olfactory capacity., (© 2019 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2019 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)

The idea that the fitness value of body coloration may be affected by biochemically mediated trade-offs has received much research attention. For example, melanization is believed to interact with other fitness-related traits via competition for substrates, costs associated with the synthesis of melanin or pleiotropic effects of the involved genes. However, genetic correlations between coloration and fitness-related traits remain poorly understood. Here, we present a quantitative-genetic study of a coloration trait correlated to melanin-based cuticular darkness ('darkness', hereafter) in a geometrid moth, Ematurga atomaria. This species has considerable variation in larval appearance. We focus on correlations between larval darkness and fitness-related growth performance traits. Both a half-sib analysis and an 'animal model' approach revealed moderately high heritabilities of larval darkness and indices of growth performance. Heritability estimates of darkness derived from the animal model were, however, considerably higher than those based on the half-sib model suggesting that the determination of coloration includes genetic interactions and epigenetic effects. Importantly, on the host plant with the largest sample size, we found no evidence for either genetic or environmental correlations between darkness and growth parameters. On an alternative host plant, there was some indication of positive genetic and negative environmental correlation between these traits. This shows that respective relationships are environment-specific. Nevertheless, the overall pattern of weak and inconsistent correlations between larval coloration and growth parameters does not support universal trade-offs between these traits and suggests that physiological costs of producing colour patterns do not necessarily interfere with adaptive evolution of coloration., (© 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)

Research on evolutionary forces determining optimal body sizes has primarily relied on experimental evaluation of respective selective pressures. Accounting for among-species variation through application of phylogenetic comparative methods is a complementary although little used approach. It enables the direct association of body size values with particular environments. Using phylogenetically explicit comparative analyses, we show that small body size is associated with diurnal (rather than nocturnal) activity of adults among temperate species of the moth family Geometridae. The association of an exclusively adult trait with species-specific body size suggests that optimal body sizes are at least partly determined by the costs being a large adult, as opposed to the more frequently considered costs of attaining large size. It appears likely that size-selective predation by insectivorous birds is the primary factor responsible for selection against large body size in day-flying moths., (© 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)

Among-population differences in immunological traits allow assessment of both evolutionary and plastic changes in organisms' resistance to pathogens. Such knowledge also provides information necessary to predict responses of such traits to environmental changes. Studies on latitudinal trends in insect immunity have so far yielded contradictory results, suggesting that multispecies approaches with highly standardised experimental conditions are needed. Here, we studied among-population differences of two parameters reflecting constitutive immunity-phenoloxidase (PO) and lytic activity, using common-garden design on three distantly related moth species represented by populations ranging from northern Finland to Georgia (Caucasus). The larvae were reared at different temperatures and on different host plants under a crossed factors experimental design. Haemolymph samples for measurement of immune status were taken from the larvae strictly synchronously. Clear among-population differences could be shown only for PO activity in one species (elevated activity in the northern populations). There was some indication that the cases of total absence of lytic activity were more common in southern populations. The effects of temperature, host and sex on the immunological traits studied remained highly species specific. Some evidence was found that lytic activity may be involved in mediating trade-offs between immunity and larval growth performance. In contrast, PO activity rarely covaried with fitness-related traits, and neither were the values of PO and lytic activity correlated with each other. The relatively inconsistent nature of the detected patterns suggests that studies on geographic differences in immunological traits should involve multiple species, and rely on several immunological indices if general trends are a point of interest., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing or financial interests. Author contributions statementConceptualization: H.M., T.T., S.L.S., D.F.; Methodology: H.M., T.T., S.L.S., D.F.; Software: T.T., D.F.; Validation: H.M., T.T., D.F.; Formal analysis: H.M.; Investigation: H.M., D.F.; Resources: T.T., S.L.S., D.F.; Data curation: H.M., D.F.; Writing - original draft: H.M.; Writing - review & editing: H.M., T.T., S.L.S., D.F.; Visualization: H.M., S.L.S.; Supervision: T.T., S.L.S., D.F.; Project administration: H.M., T.T., S.L.S., D.F.; Funding acquisition: T.T., S.L.S., D.F., (© 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.)

Spatiotemporal variation in the degree of melanism is often considered in the context of thermal adaptation, melanism being advantageous under suboptimal thermal conditions. Yet, other mutually nonexclusive explanations exist. Analysis of geographical patterns combined with laboratory experiments on the mechanisms of morph induction helps to unveil the adaptive value of particular cases of polyphenism. In the context of the thermal melanism hypothesis and seasonal adaptations, we explored an array of environmental factors that may affect the expression and performance of nonmelanic vs. melanic larval morphs in different latitudinal populations of the facultatively bivoltine moth Chiasmia clathrata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Geographical variation in larval coloration was independent of average temperatures experienced by the populations in the wild. The melanic morph was, however, more abundant in dry than in mesic habitats. In the laboratory, the melanic morph was induced especially under a high level of incident radiation but also at relatively high temperatures, but independently of photoperiod. Melanic larvae had higher growth rates and shorter development times than the nonmelanic ones when both temperature and the level of incident radiation were high. Our results that melanism is induced and advantageous in warm desiccating conditions contradict the thermal melanism hypothesis for this species. Neither has melanism evolved to compensate time constraints due to forthcoming autumn. Instead, larvae solve seasonal variation in the time available for growth by an elevated growth rate and a shortened larval period in the face of autumnal photoperiods. The phenotypic response to the level of incident radiation and a lack of adaptive adjustment of larval growth trajectories in univoltine populations underpin the role of deterministic environmental variation in the evolution of irreversible adaptive plasticity and seasonal polyphenism., (© 2015 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2015 British Ecological Society.)

Numerous studies have suggested a general relationship between the degree of host specialization and body size in herbivorous animals. In insects, smaller species are usually shown to be more specialized than larger-bodied ones. Various hypotheses have attempted to explain this pattern but rigorous proof of the body size-diet breadth relationship has been lacking, primarily because the scarceness of reliable phylogenetic information has precluded formal comparative analyses. Explicitly using phylogenetic information for a group of herbivores (geometrid moths) and their host plant range, we perform a comparative analysis to study the body size-diet breadth relationship. Considering several alternative measures of body size and diet breadth, our results convincingly demonstrate without previous methodological issues-a first for any taxon-a positive association between these traits, which has implications for evaluating various central aspects of the evolutionary ecology of herbivorous insects. We additionally demonstrate how the methods used in this study can be applied in assessing hypotheses to explain the body size-diet breadth relationship. By analyzing the relationship in tree-feeders alone and finding that the positive relationship remains, the result suggests that the body size-diet breadth relationship is not solely driven by the type of host plant that species feed on., (© 2012 The Author(s). Evolution© 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.)

Within a season, successive generations of short-lived organisms experience different combinations of environmental parameters, such as temperature, food quality and mortality risk. Adult body size of e.g. insects is therefore expected to vary both as a consequence of proximate environmental effects as well as adaptive responses to seasonal cues. In this study, we examined intraspecific differences in body size between successive generations in 12 temperate bivoltine moths (Lepidoptera), with the ultimate goal to critically compare the role of proximate and adaptive mechanisms in determining seasonal size differences. In nearly all species, individuals developing late in the season (diapausing generation) attained a larger adult size than their conspecifics with the larval period early in the season (directly developing generation) despite the typically lower food quality in late summer. Rearing experiments conducted on one of the studied species, Selenia tetralunaria also largely exclude the possibility that the proximate effects of food quality and temperature are decisive in determining size differences between successive generations. Adaptive explanations appear likely instead: the larger body size in the diapausing generation may be adaptively associated with the lower bird predation pressure late in the season, and/or the likely advantage of large pupal size during overwintering.

Intraspecific color polymorphism is widespread in insects, and various mechanisms have been proposed to explain its maintenance. Some explanations rely on the effect of body color on the organism's thermal physiology. Darker individuals accumulate solar energy more efficiently, and therefore, dark body coloration in insects is frequently presumed to be an adaptation to low temperature conditions. However, it is largely unclear what is the importance of the thermal biology in comparison to other potential selective forces on body coloration. In this study, we evaluated the role of temperature as a potential selective factor maintaining color polymorphism in aposematic larvae of the moth Orgyia antiqua L. It was found that darker, and thus less aposematic, larvae accumulated solar energy more efficiently. However, in a set of laboratory and outdoor experiments, we found no evidence of temperature-dependent performance of different color morphs or in development of different morphs induced by rearing temperature. We conclude that the effects related to thermal physiology are not likely important determinants of optimal coloration in O. antiqua. The reasons may lie in high mobility of the larvae, which allows for effective behavioral thermoregulation, which is also shown in this study. Our results caution against an uncritical extrapolation of results obtained for model organisms and indicate the need for giving more attention to the species-specific ecological background in ecophysiological studies.

A comprehensive phylogeny of north European Geometridae is reconstructed using a two‐step analytical pipeline. First, a phylogenomic backbone tree was inferred using a 117‐species subset of geometrid moths and a 35‐species set of outgroup taxa from eight other macroheteroceran families. The data matrix totalled 209,499 bp from 648 protein‐coding loci obtained using anchored hybrid enrichment technique for sequencing. This backbone was used for constructing a larger phylogeny of Geometridae based on up to 11 'traditional' protein‐coding genes which were obtained for all 376 species of north European geometrids, complemented by 98 species from taxonomic key groups of Geometridae from other parts of the world. Our results largely corroborate earlier findings about higher classification of Geometridae, but new evidence nevertheless allows us to suggest several changes to the taxonomy. Lampropterygini Õunap & Nedumpally tribus nova and Pelurgini Õunap & Nedumpally tribus nova (both Larentiinae) are described. Epirranthini are regarded as a junior subjective synonym of Rumiini syn. n. Triphosini and Macariini are shown to be paraphyletic within their current limits. Costaconvexa Agenjo is transferred from Xanthorhoini to Epirrhoini new tribe association, Artiora Meyrick from Ennomini incertae sedis to Boarmiini new tribe association, Selenia Hübner from Ennominae incertae sedis to Epionini new tribe association and Epirranthis Hübner from Epirranthini to Rumiini new tribe association. Ochyria Hübner stat. rev. is revived from synonym of Xanthorhoe Hübner as a valid genus and Epelis Hulst stat. rev. and Speranza Curtis stat. rev. from synonyms of Macaria Curtis as valid genera, leading to the following new or revised combinations: Ochyria quadrifasiata (Clerck) rev. comb., Epelis carbonaria (Clerck) comb. n., Speranza fusca (Thunberg) comb. n., Speranza artesiaria (Denis & Schiffermüller) rev. comb., Speranza brunneata (Thunberg) rev. comb., Speranza wauaria (Linnaeus) rev. comb., Speranza loricaria (Eversmann) rev. comb.Perizoma saxicola Tikhonov rev. comb. is transferred back to its original genus from Gagitodes Warren. Hydrelia Hübner, Xanthorhoe and Heliomata Grote & Robinson are shown to be paraphyletic within their current limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry body mass (DBM) is perhaps the most biologically informative variable describing body size in invertebrates. Unfortunately, obtaining species-specific indices of DBM is problematic because body mass inevitably changes during the course of the life of an individual. Here, we present a phylogenetically informed analysis of allometric relationships between body size and various linear measurements in the moth family Geometridae, which relies on DBM recorded at a fixed time point of adult life. We demonstrate that all measurements of wing size predict DBM with reasonable accuracy, with the distance between the most distal ends of the two forewings in traditionally mounted moths showing the best performance. Abdomen width provides independent morphometric information and can be used as a proxy of body plan, i.e. a measurement of shape that is not dependent on size. Incorporating abdomen width into the regression models considerably increases their predictive ability. We also show that the allometric relationships are reasonably consistent between the two sexes, between monophyletic clades of Geometridae and between the two geographical regions involved in the study (northern Europe and equatorial Africa). The derived equations thus appear to be general enough to be applied in various studies, from comparative phylogenetic analyses to applied projects monitoring insect biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Sugar baits are not only used to attract butterflies; they are also used to attract nocturnal moths. Similarly to most sampling techniques, the results of bait trapping are influenced by ambient conditions. In order to understand how bait trap catches depend on weather parameters, we performed a study in the north European forest zone using portable weather stations placed next to the traps. We found that the number of moths caught was strongly positively dependent on temperature and negatively dependent on air humidity. Diversity showed a similar dependence on temperature and humidity but was also negatively affected by air pressure and positively affected by the change of pressure during the night. Our findings help to interpret the results of quantitative insect trapping projects as they allow one to properly account for variability in weather conditions. Assemblages of insects need to be quantitatively sampled in the context of various research questions. Light trapping is the most widely used method for sampling nocturnal Lepidoptera. Attracting moths to sugar baits offers a viable alternative. However, this method is rarely used in professional research despite its popularity among amateur lepidopterists. As the activity of insects is strongly dependent on ambient conditions, the sensitivity of any trapping method to weather parameters needs to be known for the quantitative interpretation of trapping results. In the present paper, we report data on the weather dependence of moth catches obtained by automatic bait traps. The study was performed in Estonia, representing the European hemiboreal forest zone. Portable weather stations set up next to each of the traps were used for collecting weather data. Both abundance and diversity of the moths in the catches depended strongly positively on temperature and negatively on air humidity. Diversity was also negatively correlated with air pressure and positively with the change in pressure during the night. The results show that in situ recording of weather parameters in connection to insect trapping provides useful insights for the study of insect behaviour and the interpretation of the results of monitoring projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative studies on insects can significantly contribute to understanding the evolution of lifespan, as the trait can feasibly be measured in a high number of species. If the evolutionary determinants of longevity were mainly extrinsic (ecological), related species from different habitats should systematically differ in individual lifespans. We recorded adult longevities for 110 species of geometrid moths from a tropical community and paralleled the lifespans in this tropical assemblage with a temperate counterpart. Comparative analyses using an original phylogenetic reconstruction revealed that in the studied tropical assemblage, larger moth species tended to live longer, and that females had slightly shorter lifespans than males. Average adult lifespans in tropical geometrids, and the relationships of lifespan with other variables, were found to be highly similar to those reported for their temperate region relatives. The among-region similarity leads to the conclusion that intrinsic (physiological) determinants of longevity dominate over extrinsic (ecological) ones: the contrasting environments of tropical and temperate forests have hardly produced differences in moth longevities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drepanidae are one of the families of Lepidoptera that have received little attention in terms of phylogenetic studies. This study aims to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships among Drepanidae using eleven molecular markers, totalling more than 7,500 bp. A phylogenetic tree based on 37 species of Drepanidae was inferred, including 21 of the 22 European drepanids. The results of this study support monophyly of all four subfamilies of Drepanidae. Oretinae and Drepaninae were recovered as sister groups forming one of the two main clades of Drepanidae, whereas Cyclidiinae and Thyatirinae belong to the other clade. This analysis demonstrates that hooked wingtips, a characteristic feature of the Drepaninae + Oretinae lineage, have disappeared repeatedly in the course of evolution. All "winter moths" among the drepanids, i.e. species characterized by their fl ight period being very early in spring form a distinct well-supported clade within the subfamily Thyatirinae. Moreover, all studied thyatirine genera that are characterized by pink or orange blotches on the forewings also belong to one statistically well-supported clade. The phylogenetic framework presented enhances our understanding of the diversifi cation of Drepanidae and provides the groundwork for future taxonomic and evolutionary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Comparative studies on insect life histories are facilitated by the increasing availability of reliable phylogenies but are hampered by the scarcity of comparable data. Fortunately, morphological proxies of some life‐history traits can be measured on preserved specimens. 2. This study compared values of size‐related life‐history traits among a tropical (Ugandan) and a temperate (Estonian) assemblage of geometrid moths. 3. A comparative analysis based on an originally derived phylogeny revealed that tropical moths were, on average, larger than temperate ones. Tropical moths also had somewhat lower relative abdomen masses than temperate ones. This indicates that the tropical rather than the temperate moths tend to use an income (rather than capital) breeding strategy. Nevertheless, no difference was found in a related index of pro‐ovigeny. When body size was accounted for, tropical moths were found to lay smaller eggs than temperate ones. 4. The differences between the two compared areas are consistent with selection on higher mobility of the moths imposed by the more diverse tropical vegetation. Relatively larger eggs of temperate moths may constitute an adaptation to overcome the presumably stronger quantitative defences of their host plants. 5. Overall, however, we conclude that the differences in ecologically relevant size‐related traits are relatively low among moth assemblages of a tropical and a temperate forest region, indicating that these environments may not impose radically different selective pressures on insect life histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims to investigate the relationships of the major lineages within the moth family Geometridae, with a focus on the poorly studied Oenochrominae- Desmobathrinae complex, and to translate some of the results into a coherent subfamilial and tribal level classification for the family. We analyzed a molecular dataset of 1,206 Geometroidea terminal taxa from all biogeographical regions comprising up to 11 molecular markers that includes one mitochondrial (COI) and 10 protein-coding nuclear gene regions (wingless, ArgK, MDH, RpS5, GAPDH, IDH, Ca-ATPase, Nex9, EF-1alpha, CAD). The molecular data set was analyzed using maximum likelihood as implemented in IQ-TREE and RAxML. We found high support for the subfamilies Larentiinae, Geometrinae and Ennominae in their traditional scopes. Sterrhinae becomes monophyletic only if Ergavia Walker, Ametris Hübner and Macrotes Westwood, which are currently placed in Oenochrominae, are formally transferred to Sterrhinae. Desmobathrinae and Oenochrominae are found to be polyphyletic. The concepts of Oenochrominae and Desmobathrinae required major revision and, after appropriate rearrangements, these groups also form monophyletic subfamily-level entities. Oenochrominae s.str. as originally conceived by Guenée is phylogenetically distant from Epidesmia and its close relatives. The latter is hereby described as the subfamily Epidesmiinae Murillo-Ramos, Sihvonen & Brehm, subfam. nov. Epidesmiinae are a lineage of "slender-bodied Oenochrominae" that include the genera Ecphyas Turner, Systatica Turner, Adeixis Warren, Dichromodes Guenée, Phrixocomes Turner, Abraxaphantes Warren, Epidesmia Duncan & Westwood and Phrataria Walker. Archiearinae are monophyletic when Dirce and Acalyphes are formally transferred to Ennominae. We also found that many tribes were para- or polyphyletic and therefore propose tens of taxonomic changes at the tribe and subfamily levels. Archaeobalbini stat. rev. Viidalepp (Geometrinae) is raised from synonymy with Pseudoterpnini Warren to tribal rank. Chlorodontoperini Murillo-Ramos, Sihvonen & Brehm, trib. nov. and Drepanogynini Murillo-Ramos, Sihvonen & Brehm, trib. nov. are described as new tribes in Geometrinae and Ennominae, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Evolutionary studies on animal body size have primarily focussed on selective pressures operating during the adult life. In contrast, ontogenetic pathways leading to differently sized adults have received less attention. In the present study, based on a common garden experiment, we report considerable genetic differences in body size among European populations of Ematurga atomaria (L.) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). In terms of body mass, the moths from a southern (Georgian) population are twice as large as their northern (Estonian) conspecifics. Detailed monitoring of larval growth schedules revealed that the size difference arises through a longer development period of the Georgian larvae, with no difference in the number of instars. Differential (instantaneous) growth rates of the larvae do not differ between the populations. Eggs and newly hatched larvae are larger in the Georgian population but the difference vanishes in the second instar. The larger size of the Georgian moths is regained through higher relative mass increments during each of the three final instars. Such gradual ‘accumulation of the difference’ confirms the idea about constraints on substantial evolutionary changes in growth patterns within a single instar. The larger Georgian moths were found to be considerably more fecund which implies a strong selection for large female size. It remains unclear which counteracting selective pressures have favored the smaller size of Estonian conspecifics. As the associated difference in egg size appears not to be carried over to larger larval size, the adaptive value of larger eggs is not likely in contributing to the prospective large adult size. The larger eggs of the Georgian population should have an adaptive value per se, or represent a mechanistic consequence of larger maternal body size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultimate causes of phenotypic plasticity in visual appearance are frequently related to increasing the degree of crypsis in a way specific to the environment. The cues used to elicit such plastic responses may be both direct (i.e. straightforward background matching) as well as indirect. In the latter case, cues other than the visual signals from of the environment are used to predict the phenotype best corresponding to the particular situation. On the basis of a series of laboratory experiments we show that the remarkable variability in the visual appearance of the larvae of the geometrid moth Ematurga atomaria, though genetically based in part, involves a substantial environmental component. Using multiple correspondence analysis, we transformed the multidimensional variation in colour and pattern into two dimensions interpretable as patterning and darkness. Plastic changes in the darkness of the larvae were elicited by direct cues: the larvae were darker when reared on dark host-plants. Host-specific degree of patterning was also induced in absolute darkness which indicates the use of an indirect cue. This was unexpected because the study species is broadly polyphagous, and thus not likely to have evolved adaptations specific to particular host-plant species. Indeed, the larvae of E. atomaria originating from geographic populations using different host-plants showed analogous plastic responses which indicates that the link between the indirect cue and visual appearance of the host needs not to be specific to plant species. In an additional experiment, we showed that surface roughness is a likely candidate to serve as the proximate cue for determination of some pattern elements, a case not reported for insect larvae earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A molecular phylogenetic analysis was conducted in order to reconstruct the evolution of female flightlessness in the geometrid tribe Operophterini (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Larentiinae). DNA variation in four nuclear gene regions, segments D1 and D2 of 28S rRNA, elongation factor 1α, and wingless, was examined from 22 species representing seven tribes of Larentiinae and six outgroup species. Direct optimization was used to infer a phylogenetic hypothesis from the combined sequence data set. The results obtained confirmed that Operophterini (including Malacodea) is a monophyletic group, and Perizomini is its sister group. Within Operophterini, the genus Malacodea is the sister group to the genera Operophtera and Epirrita, which form a monophyletic group. This relationship is also supported by morphological data. The results suggest that female flightlessness has evolved independently twice: first in the lineage of Malacodea and, for the second time, in the lineage of Operophtera after its separation from the lineage of Epirrita. An alternative reconstruction (i.e. recovery of flight ability in an ancestor of Epirrita) appears unlikely for various reasons. The similarities shared by Epirrita with a basal representative of Perizomini, Perizoma didymatum, allow the proposal of a sequence of evolutionary events that has led to flightlessness. It is likely that the transition to female flightlessness in the two lineages of Operophterini occurred after the colonization of stable forest habitats, followed by the evolution of a specific set of permissive traits, including larval polyphagy, limited importance of adult feeding, and adult flight during the cold months of the season. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 241–252. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Most empirical and theoretical studies treat egg load as a major determinant of insect oviposition behaviour, and predict a positive link between egg load and readiness to oviposit. 2. In the present study, the correlation between egg load and readiness to lay eggs on a low-ranked host was examined in wild-caught moths, Scotopteryx chenopodiata L. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). 3. No overall effect of egg load on oviposition could be detected. However, there was a significant interaction between egg load and wing wear: in only one wing-wear class, out of four, high egg load tended to promote oviposition, while in the three other classes the effect was insignificant. 4. The results suggest that the effect of egg load on oviposition may depend on the age of the ovipositing insect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied if the population density experienced during larval development affects the reproductive schedule ofYponomeuta evonymellusL. (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae), a moth species characterized by outbreak population dynamics. More specifically, we predicted that reproduction would be delayed to facilitate emigration from sites with suboptimally high densities of conspecifics. We manipulated larval densities in the laboratory, as well as in those pupae collected from the extremes of natural densities. As the response, we also recorded the timing and sizes of egg clutches laid. The results did not support our initial predictions: the timing of oviposition was not dependent on larval growth conditions. This apparent lack of adaptation might be related to the loss of‘memory’ during metamorphosis in holometabolous insects. However, oviposition schedules were also only minimally sensitive to elevated adult density. An inability to respond to high larval densities may contribute to the outbreak dynamics in this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]