Revision of Cliniodes (Lepidoptera: Crambidae): cloud-forest endemics and stridulatory courtship

Cliniodes Guenee (Lepidoptera: Crambidae: Odontiinae: Eurrhypini) is revised to include 17 described and 12 undescribed species of large crambid moths mostly endemic to Neotropical and Caribbean cloud forests. The genus, one of the largest in Eurrhypini, belongs to a pantropical clade whose larvae specialize on Thymelaeaceae, which produce unusual terpenoid toxins. The relationships to African, Malagasy, and Southeast Asian genera are discussed, as is the evolution of aposematism. Variation in the male genitalic stridulatory apparatus differentiates some species. A cladistic analysis reveals three general, widely distributed species groups. The widespread Nearctic segregate Metrea ostreonalis belongs in Cliniodes and is related to several Mexican, Andean and southern Brazilian species. Diagnostic synapomorphies and biogeographic inferences are discussed.