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

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 metho...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nazari, Vazrick, Tarmann, Gerhard M., Efetov, Konstantin A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6894762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31805075
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225590
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author Nazari, Vazrick
Tarmann, Gerhard M.
Efetov, Konstantin A.
author_facet Nazari, Vazrick
Tarmann, Gerhard M.
Efetov, Konstantin A.
author_sort Nazari, Vazrick
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-68947622019-12-14 Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae) Nazari, Vazrick Tarmann, Gerhard M. Efetov, Konstantin A. PLoS One Research Article 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. Public Library of Science 2019-12-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6894762/ /pubmed/31805075 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225590 Text en © 2019 Nazari et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Nazari, Vazrick
Tarmann, Gerhard M.
Efetov, Konstantin A.
Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)
title Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)
title_full Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)
title_fullStr Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)
title_full_unstemmed Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)
title_short Phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ Fijian coconut moth, Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)
title_sort phylogenetic position of the ‘extinct’ fijian coconut moth, levuana iridescens (lepidoptera: zygaenidae)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6894762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31805075
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225590
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