Fig. 7. Systematics of Microphotinini Rivera & Svenson, 2016. Higher-level molecular phylogeny of Photinaidae Giglio-Tos, 1915 (A) summarizing evolutionary relationships among Microphotinini and relevant genital traits according to Rivera & Svenson (2016, 2020). Distinct genital traits define four lineages and an equal number of genital types (outlined in Rivera & Svenson 2020). Microphotina Beier, 1935, as currently understood, is paraphyletic, a relationship further supported by divergent genital traits. M. vitripennis (Saussure, 1872) is the type species of the genus; thus, from a strictly nomenclatural perspective, it represents a 'true' species of Microphotina, that is, Microphotina sensu stricto (s. str.). In Clade 1, a well-developed, long and strongly curved (hook-like) afa (B) is a genital trait common to M. vitripennis and Chromatophotina Rivera, 2010 spp.; however, M. vitripennis is unique in having an elongated patch of setae on its ventral phallomere (F, in ventral view). Clade 2, with its strongly reduced afa (C–E), comprises Microphotina (in part; Type 3 genitalia) and Genus A (= Microphotinini gen. et sp. nov. of Rivera & Svenson 2016: fig. 4). In the first, the paa is markedly hammerhead-like (H), a feature Genus A lacks; further, the ventral phallomere of the latter has a strongly reduced bl (G, dorsal view), a unique feature among the Microphotinini, in which the bl is typically narrow and elongated (as in Fig. 5B). Abbreviations: See Material and methods. Genital structures and phylogenetic tree branches not to scale. Fig. 7E–G from Rivera & Svenson (2020).

Published as part of Lanna, Leonardo Moutinho, Fiat, Lucas Linhares, Herculano, João Felipe, Rivera, Julio & Peloso, Pedro, 2023, A new species of Microphotina Beier, 1935 from the southernmost region of Amazonia (Mantodea: Photinaidae), pp. 87-106 in European Journal of Taxonomy 870 on page 98, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.870.2121, http://zenodo.org/record/7957221