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Elachista
kalki
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Subspecies
Original
description
Synonyms
Dibrachia kalki
(Parenti, 1978)
Elachista kalki (Parenti, 1978)
Note: The taxonomic subdivisions of the
Elachistidae are debated. A number of genera
have been described that show little evidence
of monophyly and might render other genera
paraphyletic. Kaila (1999) has performed a
cladistic analysis of the Elachistidae. This
analysis revealed several clearly monophyletic
groups. However, Kaila (1999) argued that
these groups should not be regarded as genera,
because they were each not supported by a
unique apomorphy, but their monophyly in the
tree resulted from a unique combination of
apomorphies. In conclusion, Kaila (1999) did
not recognize separate genera (except for
Elachista, Perittia and Stephensia) and
synonymized most genera with Elachista. I do
not agree with Kaila (1999), because it is not
necessary that a genus is supported by a
unique apomorphy, as long as its monophyly is
sufficiently well supported. In addition, with
continued research, new characters can be
added to a cladistic analysis and some of them
might prove to be unique apomorphies for a
genus lacking these in previous analyses that
did not include this character. Or, put in
another way: the monophyletic groups
established by the analysis by Kaila (1999) do
not have a unique apomorphy- yet! Nonetheless,
I provisionally accept the nomenclatural
actions in Kaila (1999), because the
recognition of the monophyletic groups in the
cladistic analysis by Kaila (1999) as genera
would require several new combinations and
resurrections of synonyms that should be
performed within the framework of a thorough
revisionary work.
Identification
Distribution
Biology
This page has been updated on December 8, 2011
This site is online since May 31, 2005
Copyright © by Nikola-Michael Prpic. All
rights reserved.
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