Integrative taxonomy reveals the exceptional species diversity of Eudonia (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in Tibet, China

Abstract

The genus Eudonia is rarely recorded in Tibet despite having a wide occurrence in the plateau. In the taxonomy of the genus, the morphological characters are insufficient to delimit the closely related congeners due to the subtly interspecific differences and conspicuously intraspecific variability. In this study, the Tibetan species are studied with an integrative approach using molecular data and morphological characters. It is found that the number of Eudonia species in Tibet accounts for about 20% of the total species previously catalogued for the genus in China. Five species are described as new to science: Eudonia galonglaensis Li, sp. nov., E. varians Li, sp. nov., E. triangulata Li, sp. nov., E. angusta Li, sp. nov., and E. bomiensis Li, sp. nov. The potential distribution of Chinese Eudonia is predicted and illustrated using MaxEnt and DIVA-GIS. The results reveal the exceptionally high species diversity of Eudonia in Tibet for the first time, demonstrate that the integrative morphological and molecular approach is highly effective for resolving the difficult-to-distinguish morphologies, and predict the region of China to the south of 35°N and to the east of 95°E as having potentially high Eudonia species diversity.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EA3C5D21-9674-46E4-838D-48D5A098314B

Keywords:

• molecular data
• morphological traits
• new species
• potential distribution
• Scopariinae

Acknowledgements

I give my cordial thanks to Dr Matthias Nuss (Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany) for providing valuable literature and generous help. I am deeply grateful to Dr Jurate De Prins for her kind support during my study in the insect collection of the Natural History Museum, London. I am greatly appreciative of the efforts of Brittany Wingert (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) for her help in improving the English throughout. I am also very grateful to Prof. Felix A. H. Sperling (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) for his kind help during the preparation of this manuscript. Special thanks are given to PhD Sarah Oliveira and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2018.1523812.

Associate Editor: Sarah Siqueira Oliveira

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31601885].