Re-establishment of <i>Spodoptera teferii</i> Laporte <i>in</i> Rougeot (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Noctuinae), with an updated molecular phylogeny for the genus <i>Spodoptera</i> Guenée

The genus <i>Spodoptera</i> Guenée (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Noctuinae) is a group of economic importance which encompasses several major pests of crops worldwide. Although this genus has been the focus of many studies, the status of several <i>Spodoptera</i> species is still unstable, especially in the light of recent molecular analyses. In 2015 five <i>Spodoptera</i> specimens collected in Ethiopia were first identified as <i>S. apertura</i> (Walker). However, preliminary studies suggested that these specimens belong to a distinct species, <i>S. teferii</i> Laporte <i>in</i> Rougeot, which has been previously synonymized with <i>S. apertura</i>. In this study, on the basis of morphological and molecular evidence, we re-establish the species status of <i>S. teferii</i>. We provide a supplemental description of <i>S. teferii</i> male and the first description of <i>S. teferii</i> female. We also conducted several molecular analyses. First, we reconstructed an updated phylogeny for the genus based on a multilocus dataset (four mitochondrial and three nuclear gene fragments) including <i>S. teferii</i> and 28 of the 31 currently recognized <i>Spodoptera</i> species; the results of phylogenetic analyses support the hypothesis that <i>S. teferii</i> is more closely related to the clade encompassing <i>S. littoralis</i> (Boisduval), <i>S. litura</i> (Fabricius), <i>S. pectinicornis</i> (Hampson) and <i>S. picta</i> (Guérin-Méneville) than to <i>S. apertura</i>. Second, we carried out molecular species delimitation analyses on a 683-specimen dataset that also clearly support the status of <i>S. teferii</i> as a species distinct to <i>S. apertura</i>.