Systematic Taxonomy Of The Family Adelidae From China(lepidoptera:Adeliodea)

The family Adelidae,longhorn fairy moths,belongs to the superfamily Adeloidea of primitive moths(non-ditrysia),which usually active during the day and visit plant flowers.Their immature stages are very complex which mine leaves,bore stems or flower buds at the first instar and then eat fallen leaves on the ground with a shelter case.There is a little research on this family in China without detailed taxonomic study.In this paper,a systematic research on the Chinese adelid moths,including phylogenetic position in the order Lepidoptera and the relationship among genera of this family,is studied,and a detailed morphological study and taxonomic determination based on the existing specimens and type specimens are provided,and molecular identification for some species are also carried out.The main results of this study are as follows:(1)The phylogenetic position of the family Adelidae in primitive moths(nonditrysia)and Lepidoptera are clarified,and the phylogenetic relationship among genera and species group levels are also discussed.Based on 73 morphological characters and mitochondrial genome data,the phylogenetic trees of Chinese Adelidae are constructed by using maximum parsimony,maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods.The results showed that the superfamily Adeloidea was strongly supported as a monophyletic group and the basal branch of Eulepidoptera.The monophyly of Adelidae and its sister group relationship with Heliozelidae have been also well supported by morphological matrix and some molecular datasets.The relationship among the genera of Adelidae is(Nematopogon +(Adela + Nemophora)),and the monophyly of some species groups in the genus Nemophora have also been verified.(2)The taxonomic status of all species taxa of Chinese Adelidae are revised.A total of 66 species of 2 subfamilies,3 genera are recognized in China,and 58 species are described in this paper.Among them,12 new species are described,15 new recorded species of China are determined,and a new synonym and a new combination are proposed.Additionally,literature citations,diagnosis,descriptions,examinations,geographical distributions,remarks,and keys to genera and species are also provided,as well as the checklist of Chinese Adelidae and 17 plates of color photographs.(3)DNA barcoding approaches are applied in the molecular identifications of the genera Nemophora and Nematopogon.Based on the DNA barcoding sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene,species delimitations are conducted for the genera Nemophora and Nematopogon by using the mathods of genetic distance and evolutionary tree.The results showed that different samples of each species can be clustered into one branch with high support values,and some species groups have been further verified.