Tribe Pseudoterpnini Warren, 1893

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Tribe Pseudoterpnini Warren, 1893

Pseudoterpniti Warren, W. 1893. On new genera and species of Moths of the family Geometridae from India, in the collection of H.J. Elwes. With notes by H.J. Elwes. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1893: 341-434 (Pseudoterpninae).
Type genus:
Pseudoterpna Hubner, 1823.
Terpnini Inoue, H. 1961. Lepidoptera: Geometridae. Insecta Japonica 1 4.
Type genus:
Terpna Herrich-Schäffer, 1854.
Pingasini Heppner, J.B. & Inoue, H. (eds) 1992. Geometridae. Gainsville : Association for Tropical Lepidoptera xlix 276 pp.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

Hausmann, A. 1996. The morphology of the geometrid moths of the Levant and its neighbouring countries (Part I: Orthostixinae-Geometrinae). Nota Lepidopterologica 19: 3-90 [96] (Terpnini)
Holloway, J.D. 1996. The Moths of Borneo : family Geometridae, subfamilies : Oenochrominae, Desmobathrinae, Geometrinae, Orthostixinae. Malayan Nature Journal 49: 147-326 [149] (Terpnini, Archaeobalbini)

Introduction

Since its erection by Warren 1893, many authors have reviewed this tribe to determine a stable classificaiton for the group. Anomalies in its classifcation have been identifed early by several authors, with recent molecular research aiding in the clarification of the intra-tribal relationships. Pitkin et al. comprehensively reviewed the tribe on morphological features in 2007, recognising 34 genera, but were not able to identify a single apomorphy for the group. Both Pitkin and Hausmann (1996, 2001) identified Holoterpna Pungeler and Aplasta Hubner as genera with anomalous features and Pitkin (2007) singled out a group including the type genus Pseudoterpna Hubner, Aplasta, Holoterpna, Mictoschema Prout and Mimandria Warren, with distinct morphological features.

Two recent studies appeared to confirm that the Pseudoterpnini may well be polyphyletic and also paraphyletic. Ban et al. (2018) found that Pseudoterpna and Pingasa form a monophyletic group, separate from a well-supported clade of the other pseudoterpnines (sensu Pitkin) included in the analysis; the latter clade, now named Pseudoterpnini s. l. does not include any of the four genera formerly associated with the type genus by Pitkin, Pseudoterpnini s. str.(see above). Similar relationships, with broader sampling of taxa and genera, were recovered by Murillo-Ramos et al. (2019) who revived the Archaeobalbini for the group dubbed Pseudoterpnini s. l. by Ban et al. This tribe does not include Australian taxa.

Interestingly, Murillo-Ramos et al. recovered the common and widespread Australian pseudoterpnine Crypsiphona as an isolated and separate lineage, sister to Hemetheini. As few Australian genera have been included in this recent work and the classification of these tribes is still inconclusive, more work needs to be conducted to arrive at a stable taxonomy for the Australian 'pseudoterpnines'.