Rewriting the evolutionary history of pantheid moths

The noctuoid moth family Pantheidae, which until recently was wrongly treated as a subfamily of Noctuidae, is one of the largest sources of contention in Lepidoptera taxonomy. The definition of this group has been in constant flux due to misuse of morphological characters or misinterpretation of molecular phylogenies that lack morphological evidence. In order to clarify the evolutionary history of Pantheidae, we reconstructed a phylogeny sequencing 450 loci from 36 specimens that represent 27 of the 33 genera sensu stricto and eight specimens representing eight of the 11 putative Pantheidae genera using anchored hybrid enrichment target capture with about 400 loci recovery. Additionally, we added 38 noctuid sequences comprising 21 of the 23 Noctuid subfamilies and other 14 sequences that cover the other five families in Noctuoidea. To support the phylogenetic results, we determined 86 morphological characters from Adult and immature stages. We performed a maximum likelihood and a multi-species coalescent analysis to determine the relationships among taxa and recognition of higher-level group within Pantheidae. We have split Pantheidae into nine subfamilies and 19 tribes, all of which are strongly supported in our molecular phylogeny and corroborated with morphological characters. However, classification is still pending for the are six remaining pantheid genera not sampled in this study. This work emphasizes that Pantheidae, as well as the entire megadiverse superfamily Noctuoidea, need more systematic study in order to fully solve their evolutionary mysteries.