The genera Holomelina Herrich–Shäffer and Virbia Walker are brightly colored tiger moths whose generic limits may be defined more by geography and color pattern than by biology. Species of Holomelina occur from Canada to Guatemala and species of Virbia occur from Mexico to Brazil.
We undertook a generic review to address generic limits and examine biogeographic implications of the phylogeny. We examined whole body preparations of male-female pairs for 25 species (10 Holomelina and 13 Virbia). An additional 13 species of Virbia and 8 of Holomelina were represented by males only. Outgroup taxa included: Apantesis phalerata Harrison and Phragmatobia fuliginosa (L.). Thirty-four morphological characters (2-10 states) were described. A total of 10 binary and 24 multistate characters were scored. Phylogenetic trees were constructed using maximum parsimony (MP) implemented with PAUP*.
Results show that Holomelina is paraphyletic with respect to Virbia, although the type species and seven others formed a clade nested within Virbia. Placement of Holomelina as a junior synonym of Virbia is supported by our results. Biogeographic patterns suggest that the North American fauna is a composite of at least two unrelated lineages. Further, multiple exchanges between Central and South American fauna may have occurred.
Species 1: Lepidoptera Arctiidae Virbia
Keywords: Phylogeny, Morphology
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