The Neotropical genus Melothria (Benincaseae, Cucurbitaceae) is a small group of yellow- or white-flowered climbers with small to medium-sized fruits. In 1899, Alfred Cogniaux described a species from montane rainforest in Haiti as Melothria domingensis, presumably based on the overall similarity in habit, leaf shape, and fruit morphology of his incomplete herbarium material to other Central American Melothria species. Melothria domingensis is still rare in European and American herbaria and the species has never been studied in detail. We here present molecular and morphological analyses, which show that the species is misplaced in Melothria and instead belongs in the distantly related tribe Cucurbiteae in the genus Cayaponia. We illustrate the species, provide the formal transfer and an extended description, and discuss the phylogenetic, biogeographic and ecological implications, including the finding that most likely bee- and not bat-pollination is ancestral in Cayaponia.
Keywords: Cogniaux; Flora of Hispaniola; Melothria domingensis; pollinator shifts.