Phylogenetic position of the 'extinct' Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 12; p. e0225590
• Main Authors: Nazari, Vazrick, Tarmann, Gerhard M, Efetov, Konstantin A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 05.12.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abdomen; Animals; Australia; Biological control; Biology and Life Sciences; Butterflies & moths; Computer and Information Sciences; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Dissection; DNA; Earth Sciences; Endangered & extinct species; Extinction; Extinction, Biological; Female; Gene sequencing; Islands; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Morphology; Moths - anatomy & histology; Moths - classification; Museums; Nucleotide sequence; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Research and analysis methods; Taxonomy; Australia; New Guinea; Fiji; Myanmar (Burma); United Kingdom > UK; China; Solomon Islands
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225590

Levuana iridescens Bethune-Baker, 1906, a day-flying moth purported to be endemic to the Fijian Island of Viti Levu and a former pest of its coconut palm trees, was last observed in 1956 and has been officially declared extinct by IUCN since 1996. The controversial classical biological control method that resulted in the (presumed) demise of this moth has given this species an iconic status in biological control studies. We investigated the sister-group relationships and phylogenetic placement of this moth using NGS-obtained ancient DNA sequences from museum specimens of L. iridescens collected in the 1920s, combined with 31 morphological characters used in earlier studies and 2 new characters. Our findings show that Levuana is most closely related to the Australian genus Myrtartona. The significance of these findings is discussed.