Falcicaputis St Laurent & Prada-Lara 2025, GEN. N.
Creators: name: Prada-Lara, Liliana
name: St Laurent, Ryan A.
name: Weller, Susan
name: Fagua, Giovanny
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Notodontidae
Falcicaputis

description: 44. FALCICAPUTIS ST LAURENT & PRADA-LARA, GEN. N.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 92E89B34-1622-41A4-80CB-863F8A6899EA
Type species: Falcicaputis australis St Laurent & Prada-Lara, by present designation. Figs 12E–J, 13B, C, 14E–G.
Description. Male: Head: Width more than half that of thorax, frons coloration brown with erect scales protruding outward, eyes large, naked, occupying more than 2/3 area of head, labial palpus very large, first segment not extending beyond eye but second segment extending beyond apex of head, third segment less than ¼ length of second segment, scales densest and longest on second segment; haustellum of present but length not determined, antennal scape with dense scale tuft, antennae dark brown, bipectinate nearly to terminus with long widely spaced pectinations. Thorax: Light brown with darker brown scale tuft at posterior margin. Legs outwardly clothed in brown, with lighter brown scales inwardly. Tibial spurs thin, short, clothed in fine white scales, in formula 0-2- 4. Tarsal claws bifid. No scent pockets. Wings: Forewing length 11–12 mm (n = 3); subtriangular, outer margin straight becoming convex along tornus, apex rounded. Forewing dorsum ground color dark brown with both darker and lighter brown mottling throughout, especially basally and medially, light brown present. Overall wing pattern largely obscured by relatively dark ground color, most obvious markings being a wavy white or light antemedial line which is incomplete, a black apical streak that may be broken into three to five spots at vein intersections, and a bright white mark near discal cell; additional white scales may be present at wing vein intersections above and below the discal cell. Submarginal line present but faint, irregular, outwardly somewhat lighter. Forewing ventrum brown without markings. Hindwing without distinct markings except for darker splotch which may have some lighter internal scales at tornus, coloration brown. Hindwing venter as for hindwing dorsum. Frenulum a single bristle. Abdomen: Clothed in light brown scales with darker brown scales near terminus, darker scale tuft splayed. Cteniophores and peniculus absent. Eighth sternite (Fig. 14E–G, lower) truncated posteriorly and forming an elongate point anteriorly. Eighth tergite rectangular with central impression. Terminalia: (Fig. 14E–G, upper) (n = 3) Vinculum ovoid, otherwise nondescript. Tegumen well-sclerotized and somewhat rectangular. Uncus narrow or somewhat broadened mesally, heavily sclerotized and acutely angled downward with truncate or pointed tip, bulbous lobe below crook of uncus. Socii heavily sclerotized, elongate or bulbous with dense covering of thick, sharp, spine-like setae. Gnathos absent. Valvae subtriangular with more densely sclerotized costal and saccular regions, centrally somewhat indented and more membranous, SSO present with dense pleats, base of valvae with setose protrusion. Juxta reduced. Costulae present as fingerlike distally broadened projections or short, spiny projections. Aedeagus short and nondescript, basally with weakly developed callosum; vesica short and bag-like.
Female: Unknown.
Etymology. The name is derived from Latin “falcis” meaning scythe or curved blade and “caputis” for head referring to the long, curving labial palpi of this genus.
Diagnosis. This new genus is one of the smallest members of Nystaleinae, easily recognized by the short, broad, triangular wings. The patterning is diagnostic, with a black streak from the apex to the discal cell with a contrasting white mark near the discal cell at the base of the black streak. This black streak may be broken into three to five individual black marks at wing vein intersections. Additional markings are rather faint but notable white scales along wing veins above and below the black streak/spots are also occasionally present. The male genitalia are recognized by their triangular valvae with densely pleated base, fingerlike costulae, an acutely downwardly angled narrow uncus and bizarre socii that may be either short and bulbous (F. australis) or long and flattened (F. praxia and F. modica) but in both cases with thick spine-like setae covering them.
Comments. Two species of Falcicaputis described before the present work were placed in separate genera: praxia was originally assigned to Gopha and modica was assigned to Didugua. Both of these genera are distinct and this new genus cannot be confused with either of them, particularly in light of the genitalia. It is unclear why Schaus (1921) chose this original genus for praxia or why Dognin assigned modica to Didugua. Thiaucourt and Chacón (2014) revised much of Didugua and pointed out that modica may belong to a separate genus once the genitalia were examined. Falcicaputis praxia is known to us only by the holotype collected in Guatemala and F. modica only by the holotype collected in the Amazon (the latter specimen is in such poor shape that only the genitalia can be used to recognize that species). While we include both of those species in our diagnosis and description of the new genus, we chose the new species F. australis, described below, as the type species given availability of two specimens.
Distribution. Poorly represented in collections but evidently widely distributed with scattered records from Guatemala, the Brazilian Amazon, Argentina, and Bolivia.
Species included (3).
Falcicaputis australis St Laurent & Prada-Lara *, sp. nov.
Falcicaputis modica (Dognin, 1924), comb. n.
Falcicaputis praxia (Schaus, 1921), comb. n.
description: Published as part of Prada-Lara, Liliana, St Laurent, Ryan A., Weller, Susan & Fagua, Giovanny, 2025, Nystaleinae moths (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae): A morphological review of the subfamily, pp. 1-67 in Zootaxa 5622 (1) on pages 50-51, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5622.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15324538