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Recent advances in molecular systematics have led to an emerging understanding of the phylogenetic history of the family Geometridae. These studies have basically confirmed the traditional subdivision of the subfamily Larentiinae into tribes but unsolved problems remain. Here we test the monophyly of the tribe Perizomini, and evaluate the division of this tribe into genera using Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of one mitochondrial and eight nuclear gene fragments. We show that the Eurasian members of Perizoma Hübner, 1825, Mesotype Hübner, 1825 and Gagitodes Warren, 1893 together form a monophyetic tribe Perizomini. However, Martania Mironov, 2000 is not closely related to these genera, but is considered to belong to Melanthiini according to the results of the phylogenetic analyses. Morphological evidence supporting this rearrangement is discussed. The Nearctic Larentia basaliata Walker, 1862 was shown to belong in the genus Martania as M. basaliata (Walker, 1862) comb. nov. and being specifically distinct from the morphologically similar Palaearctic M. taeniata. Three other studied ‘Perizoma’ species from the New World were similarly placed far from Perizomini in the phylogenetic tree, and were not related to each other. We conclude that both the tribe Perizomini and the genus Perizoma are polyphyletic which indicates that the group needs a global revision. It remains an open question whether Perizomini have a worldwide distribution as previously assumed, or is this tribe confined to the Palaearctic region.

Nola estonica Õunap 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 (Hübner, [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.

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.

The hitherto unknown female of Apocolotois smirnovi (Romanoff, 1885) is described based on two specimens from Tbilisi, Georgia. To date, only males of this rare Transcaucasian species were known. The results of DNA barcoding are presented, larva and pupa of A. smirnovi are figured, and the biology and distribution of the species are commented on.

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.

International audience; Evading predators is a fundamental aspect of the ecology and evolution of all prey animals. In studying the influence of prey traits on predation risk, previous researchers have shown that crypsis reduces attack rates on resting prey, predation risk increases with increased prey activity, and rapid locomotion reduces attack rates and increases chances of surviving predator attacks. However, evidence for these conclusions is nearly always based on observations of selected species under artificial conditions. In nature, it remains unclear how defensive traits such as crypsis, activity levels, and speed influence realized predation risk across species in a community. Whereas direct observations of predator-prey interactions in nature are rare, insight can be gained by quantifying bodily damage caused by failed predator attacks. 2). We quantified how butterfly species traits affect predation risk in nature by determining how defensive traits correlate with wing damage caused by failed predation attempts, thereby providing the first robust multi-species comparative analysis of predator-induced bodily damage in wild animals. 3). For 34 species of fruit-feeding butterflies in an African forest, we recorded wing damage and quantified crypsis, activity levels, and flight speed. We then tested for correlations between damage parameters and species traits using comparative methods that account for measurement error. 4). We detected considerable differences in the extent, location, and symmetry of wing surface loss among species, with smaller differences between sexes. We found that males (but not females) of species that flew faster had substantially less wing surface loss. However, we found no correlation between cryptic colouration and symmetrical wing surface loss across species. In species in which males appeared to be more active than females, males had a lower proportion of symmetrical wing surface loss than females. 5). Our results provide evidence that activity greatly influences the probability of attacks and that flying rapidly is effective for escaping pursuing predators in the wild, but we did not find evidence that cryptic species are less likely to be attacked while at rest.

Management of semi-natural grasslands should be based on the requirements of plants as well as their pollinators since conditions beneficial for plants are not necessarily beneficial for their pollinators and vice versa. The factors affecting the reproductive success (fruit set) of Platanthera bifolia and Platanthera chlorantha and their pollinators in agricultural landscape and woodlands were studied. In the years 2014–2016, we observed and caught moths during the flowering period of Platanthera species (late June–mid July) in four pure P. bifolia, five pure P. chlorantha and nine mixed populations under management or no management in Estonia. We determined pollinator species richness, pollinator abundance, fruit set and visibility of Platanthera plants in each population. We found that pollinator assemblages of P. bifolia and P. chlorantha did not differ between managed and unmanaged sites. Pollinator abundance had an effect on the fruit set of P. bifolia but not on that of P. chlorantha. Presence or absence of management, visibility of plants and rarefied pollinator species richness did not affect the fruit set of either plant species. Pollinator abundance was significantly higher in unmanaged populations of both plant species but rarefied pollinator species richness was higher only in unmanaged populations of P. chlorantha. Based on our findings the recommendations for management of semi-natural grasslands are to promote larger landscape diversity for the benefit of moth abundance by leaving unmanaged patches in different parts of a grassland in different years and rotational and post-fruiting management for higher reproductive success of orchids.

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.

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 Boarmiiniis 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.

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.

Red Lists are very valuable tools in nature conservation at global, continental and (sub-) national scales. In an attempt to prioritise conservation actions for European butterflies, we compiled a database with species lists and Red Lists of all European countries, including the Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). In total, we compiled national species lists for 42 countries and national Red Lists for 34 of these. The most species-rich countries in Europe are Italy, Russia and France with more than 250 species each. Endemic species are mainly found on the Macaronesian archipelagos and on the Mediterranean islands. By attributing numerical values proportionate to the threat statuses in the different national Red List categories, we calculated a mean Red List value for every country (cRLV) and a weighted Red List value for every species (wsRLV) using the square root of the country’s area as a weighting factor. Countries with the highest cRLV were industrialised (NW) European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Denmark, whereas large Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Italy had the lowest cRLV. Species for which a Red List assessment was available in at least two European countries and with a relatively high wsRLV (≥ 50) are Colias myrmidone, Pseudochazara orestes, Tomares nogelii, Colias chrysotheme and Coenonympha oedippus. We compared these wsRLVs with the species statuses on the European Red List to identify possible mismatches. We discuss how this complementary method can help to prioritise butterfly conservation on the continental and/or the (sub-)national scale.

Predictive classifications of life histories are essential for evolutionary ecology. While attempts to apply a single approach to all organisms may be overambitious, recent advances suggest that more narrow ordination schemes can be useful. However, these schemes mostly lack easily observable proxies of the position of a species on respective axes. It has been proposed that, in insects, the degree of capital (vs. income) breeding, reflecting the importance of adult feeding for reproduction, correlates with various ecological traits at the level of among-species comparison. We sought to prove these ideas via rigorous phylogenetic comparative analyses. We used experimentally derived life-history data for 57 species of European Geometridae (Lepidoptera), and an original phylogenetic reconstruction. The degree of capital breeding was estimated based on morphological proxies, including relative abdomen size of females. Applying Brownian-motion-based comparative analyses (with an original update to include error estimates), we demonstrated the associations between the degree of capital breeding and larval diet breadth, sexual size dimorphism, and reproductive season. Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model based phylogenetic analysis suggested a causal relationship between the degree of capital breeding and diet breadth. Our study indicates that the gradation from capital to income breeding is an informative axis to ordinate life-history strategies in flying insects which are affected by the fecundity vs. mobility trade off, with the availability of easy to record proxies contributing to its predictive power in practical contexts.

The conservation of forest biodiversity is increasingly relying on forest landscapes managed for timber production. A precondition for successful biodiversity conservation in intensively managed landscapes is a good understanding of habitat- and landscape-level drivers of species diversity. In this study, we investigated the effects of habitat characteristics and landscape context on the species richness and composition of butterflies in temperate forest landscapes routinely managed by clear-cutting. Our focus was on forest-dependent species. Even though about a quarter of the entire butterfly fauna in Europe are associated with forest habitats, the drivers of their diversity are poorly known. We used data from an unprecedentedly extensive butterfly survey, conducted in more than 400 sites distributed across all major forest types in Estonia (Northern Europe). Our data indicate that, generally, forests harvested for timber production remain suitable as habitats for forest butterflies: across the study sites, we recorded almost the full complement of their total regional species richness. By far the most influential driver of local butterfly species richness in such forests appears to be the proportion of forest cover in the surrounding landscape. The species richness of forest butterflies starts to show signs of decline at remarkably high levels of forest cover in the landscape. Surprisingly, landscape-scale forest heterogeneity around study sites had no discernible effect on local species richness, the pattern plausibly resulting from low mobility of forest butterflies. The most important habitat-scale predictor of butterfly species richness was soil moisture, with butterfly communities being most species-rich in forests on soils of intermediate moisture. Different forest types contribute to the regional species pool of forest butterflies in a complementary manner. No single forest type alone provides habitat for the entire species pool: peaks of abundance of different species are distributed across multiple forest types. Accordingly, a substantial part of the variation in species assemblages could be attributed to characteristic soil conditions (moisture and pH) of different forest types. Our findings imply that both the extent and heterogeneity of forest landscapes are important for maintaining the diversity of forest butterflies at the landscape scale.

The distribution of butterflies was mapped throughout entire Estonia in 2016 and 2017. Butterflies were surveyed during three phenologically targeted visits at more than 1200 pre-selected sites. In total, over 180 000 individuals belonging to 97 species were recorded. We compare the resulting distribution maps with historical records, and discuss changes in the species' distribution. We conclude that, within the time frame of century, the changes in the Estonian butterfly fauna were moderate. For about 75% of species, there was no conclusive evidence of a change in distribution or abundance. In case of the remaining 25%, there were more butterfly species with an increasing rather than a decreasing trend in abundance and/or distribution. Some but not all of those changes could be associated with ongoing climate change. The decline of several dry-meadow specialists can be regarded as the most urgent conservation concern.

The magpie moth, Abraxas grossulariata, is an iconic species in which female heterogamety was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. However, the sex chromosomes of this species have not yet been cytologically identified. We describe the sex chromosomes of A. grossulariata and its congener, A. sylvata. Although these species split only around 9.5 million years ago, and both species have the expected WZ/ZZ chromosomal system of sex determination and their sex chromosomes share the major ribosomal DNA (rDNA) representing the nucleolar organizer region (NOR), we found major differences between their karyotypes, including between their sex chromosomes. The species differ in chromosome number, which is 2n = 56 in A. grossularita and 2n = 58 in A. sylvata. In addition, A. grossularita autosomes exhibit massive autosomal blocks of heterochromatin, which is a very rare phenomenon in Lepidoptera, whereas the autosomes of A. sylvata are completely devoid of distinct heterochromatin. Their W chromosomes differ greatly. Although they are largely composed of female-specific DNA sequences, as shown by comparative genomic hybridization, cross-species W-chromosome painting revealed considerable sequence differences between them. The results suggest a relatively rapid molecular divergence of Abraxas W chromosomes by the independent spreading of female-specific repetitive sequences.

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 ifErgaviaWalker,AmetrisHübner andMacrotesWestwood, 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. Oenochrominaes.str. as originally conceived by Guenée is phylogenetically distant fromEpidesmiaand 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 generaEcphyasTurner,SystaticaTurner,AdeixisWarren,DichromodesGuenée,PhrixocomesTurner,AbraxaphantesWarren,EpidesmiaDuncan & Westwood andPhratariaWalker. Archiearinae are monophyletic whenDirceandAcalyphesare 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. Archaeobalbinistat. 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.

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.

We present a phylogenetic comparative study assessing the evolutionary determinants of egg size in the moth family Geometridae. These moths were found to show a strong negative allometric relationship between egg size and maternal body size. Using recently developed comparative methods based on an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, we show that maternal body size explains over half the variation in egg size. However, other determinants are less clear: ecological factors, previously hypothesized to affect egg size, were not found to have a considerable influence in the Geometridae. The limited role of such third factors suggests a direct causal link between egg size and body size rather than an indirect correlation mediated by some ecological factors. Notably, no large geometrid species lay small eggs. This pattern suggests that maternal body size poses a physical constraint on egg size, but within these limits, there appears to be a rather invariable selection for larger eggs.

Both males and females of Baeopterogyna mihalyii Matile, 1975 are recorded from northern Greece. Females are described for the first time providing photographs of the general facies and terminalia. In contrast to the single congener with stenopterous females – B. nudipes Vockeroth, 1972 – B. mihalyii is shown to have normally developed wings in both sexes. Association of sexes is based on both morphological characters and sequence data from cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI). DNA sequences are used for the first time for the association of sexes in Mycetophilidae. New country record from Greece is provided for Sciophila nigronitida Landrock, 1925.

This study reports the results of a molecular phylogenetic analysis of thirty three species of Ennominae (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). The aim of this analysis was to determine the phylogenetic affinities of 13 European species not previously studied using these methods. Fragments of seven nuclear genes, elongation factor 1 alpha (EF-1D ), wingless (wgl), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), ribosomal protein S5 (RpS5) and expansion segments D1 and D2 of the 28S rRNA gene and fragment of one mitochondrial gene, cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), were used. In the analysis using Bayesian phylogenetic inference, original gene sequences of the target species were combined with a larger data matrix of 20 species of Ennominae, used in a previous study (Wahlberg et al., 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 55: 929-938). Most notably, the results indi- cate that the representatives of the genera Cepphis, Plagodis, Pseudopanthera and Selenia form a well-supported monophyletic group which appeared as the sister clade to the rest of the "ennomine" group of tribes. On the other hand, Crocallis and Opistho- graptis group together with Ennomos. These results conflict with previous tribal subdivisions of the subfamily pointing to the need to reconsider the concepts of Ennomini and Ourapterygini. Within the tribe Macariini, the genus Macaria appears to be more closely related to Itame (= Speranza) than to Chiasmia clathrata. The emerging phylogenetic tree of Ennominae suggests only a limited phy- logenetic inertia in body size making this group a promising target for comparative studies on this central life history trait and its correlates.

We present a molecular phylogeny incorporating all five species of the Palaearctic geometrid genus Lythria, based on a 2810-bp combined data matrix comprising the full sequence of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) and fragments of the nuclear genes elongation factor 1 alpha (EF-1D ) and wingless (wgl). L. venustata, which was recently rediscovered from Kazakhstan, is shown to be sister taxon to all other members of the genus. The remaining species within the genus form two pairs of sister species: L. purpuraria groups together with L. plumularia, and L. cruentaria with L. sanguinaria. The phylogeny is well supported by characters of the male genitalia of all Lythria species. In addition to the molecular phylogeny of the genus Lythria, we illustrate the external appearance of L. venustata for the first time and describe the anatomy of its male genitalia.

External morphological differences were found between Tasmanian and mainland Australian specimens of what was previously considered a single species, the Redlined Geometrid, Crypsiphona ocultaria (Donovan). Examination of genitalia showed constant differences, suggesting that Tasmanian and mainland Australian populations represent distinct species. This hypothesis was tested using DNA sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and nuclear elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1α) gene. Tasmanian Crypsiphona Meyrick populations were found to represent a distinct species, described here as C. tasmanica sp. nov. The results show that a phylogeny-based approach allows the delimitation of C. ocultaria (Donovan) and C. tasmanica sp. nov., but distance-based delimitation is problematic due to substantial overlap in intra- and interspecific genetic distances. Using nucleotide data in character-based species delimitations might be possible for discriminating between C. ocultaria and C. tasmanica, but our current knowledge does not allow the assignment of characters required for this purpose.

The tribe Lythriini is a small group of diurnally active geometrid moths consisting of a single Palaearctic genus Lythria with five species. The systematic placement of Lythriini has remained controversial: though traditionally it has been placed into the subfamily Larentiinae, a number of morphological characters link this tribe with the subfamily Sterrhinae. A molecular phylogenetic study was conducted to verify the systematic position of Lythriini, using sequences of both mitochondrial and nuclear genes: elongation factor 1α (EF-1α), wingless (wgl), 28S rRNA expansion segment D2 (28S D2), cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) (a total of 3784 bp). Phylogenetic analysis reliably demonstrated that Lythriini belong to the subfamily Sterrhinae. Therefore, we propose to remove tribe Lythriini from Larentiinae and unite it with Sterrhinae. Moreover, our analysis supports the monophyly of both Sterrhinae and Larentiinae. However, although both morphological data and interspecific genetic distances insinuated that Lythria cruentaria and L. sanguinaria are sister species, the latter formed a clade of sister taxa together with L. purpuraria.

Two new Mycetophilidae species, Neuratelia jabalmoussae sp. n. and Neuratelia salmelai sp. n. are described on the basis of material collected from Lebanon, Estonia and Finland. Detailed figures of male terminalia and photographs of general facies are provided along with discussions of their morphological distinction from sibling species. For the first time molecular characters are used to distinguish new fungus gnat species. Molecular analysis relies on cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) but has additionally been corroborated by information from the 28S and ITS2 regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Situations where morphological and molecular data provide conflicting evidence for species delimitation are discussed. A new country record from Georgia is provided for Neuratelia caucasica.

Four moth species are grouped in the genus Paromphacodes today. We add descriptions of further five new species: Paromphacodes alticola sp. nov., P. alpha sp. nov., P. onae sp. nov., P. spina sp. nov. and P . summita sp. nov. The species are confined to the paramo biome on summits of Andean volcanoes and were collected on five mountains. The case of the three first named species shows that the deep COI barcode splitting does not affect morphological diversification. The differentiation of P. alticola, P. alpha and P. onae is explained in association with orogeny of Andes and repeated periods of the local active volcanism.

The Nearctic Epirrita pulchraria (Taylor, 1907) was revealed as a sister taxon of the Palaearctic Malacodea regelaria Tengstrom,1869 in a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Operophterini. DNA sequence variation in one mitochondrial (COI) and eight nuclear (28S, EF-1α, WGL, GAPDH, RPS5, IDH, MDH, CAD) gene fragments was used in the analysis. Bayesian inference resulted in a well-resolved phylogenetic hypothesis. According to the recovered phylogeny a new combination is proposed: Rachela pulchraria Taylor, 1907 is transferred from Epirrita Hubner, 1808 to Malacodea Tengstrom, 1869 as Malacodea pulchraria (Taylor, 1907) comb. nov. Larvae of both M. pulchraria and M. regelaria feed on coniferous trees, which distinguishes them from other members of the tribe. Close relatedness of M. pulchraria and M. regelaria is also supported by our study of male genital morphology. Ambiguous phylogenetic affinities of Epirrita viridipurpurescens (Prout, 1937) are discussed.