A reexamination of the Holomelina and Virbia genera of North and South America was necessary to determine whether the groups are reciprocally monophyletic. Recent taxonomy supporting this is questionable, and evidence suggests that the genera may be synonymous. This study examines the generic limits and the phylogenetic relationships using genitalic characters. These characters were described and analyzed with the following outgroup genera: Apantesis phalerata Harrison and Phragmatobia fuliginosa (L.) (Arctiini). In this analysis, character observation was used to create nonadditive, unordered characters in a data matrix. Maximum parisomony, Bremmer support, a partition-homogeneity test, and a Kishino Hasegawa test were used to examine the validity of the observed characters. The preliminary maximum parsimony analysis of the completed matrix yielded one tree (Length=121, CI=53, RI=62). Two major clades were supported by seven synapomorphies, with two other subclades within the second clade. The observed phlyogeny for the analysis shows Holomelina as being paraphyletic with respect to Virbia.
Species 1: Lepidoptera Arctiidae Holomelina aurantiaca
Species 2: Lepidoptera Arctiidae Virbia mentiens
Keywords: Phylogeny
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