Vespanthedon Le Cerf 1917
Creators: name: Bartsch, Daniel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Sesiidae
Vespanthedon

description: Vespanthedon Le Cerf, 1917   
 Type species: Vespanthedon cerceris Le Cerf, 1917, by monotypy.   
Literature. Le Cerf 1917: 329; Hampson 1919: 77; Dalla Torre & Strand 1925: 119; Gaede 1929: 527; Naumann 1971: 31; Fletcher & Nye 1982: 168; Heppner & Duckworth 1981: 42; Vári, Kroon & Krüger 2002: 67; Pühringer & Kallies 2004: 45.  
 Redescription. Medium sized with wingspan 26–30 mm. Head with frons 1.5× the diameter of the eye; haustellum of medium length, weakly sclerotized; labial palpus upturned, reaching at least up to antenna base, second palpomere somewhat longer than other ones, first and second palpomere ventrally with long, hair-like scales; male antenna short, clavate, bipectinate, ciliate, rami short, distally tapering, lacking at tip; female antenna without pectination or ciliae. Thorax and abdomen slender, smooth scaled; abdominal segments 2 and 3 of the male somewhat constricted, forming a weak ‘wasp-waist’; anal tuft narrow, abdomen of the female spindle-shaped. Legs smooth scaled; hind leg as long as abdomen; all pairs of spurs with lateral ones half as long as mesal ones. Wings narrow, partially hyaline; forewing with costal area and costal parts of cell and apical area opaque; discal spots indistinct; that of hindwing very short and small. Wing venation (Fig. 91) with forewing veins R1–R3 approximated, R4 and R5 stalked, veins from common stalk of R4/R5 to CuA2 arise equally spaced from cross vein; hindwing with common stalk of M3 and CuA1.   
 Male genitalia (Fig. 116). Tegumen rather slender, medio-distally somewhat laterally constricted; gnathos of unique, triangular, mitre-like shape; uncus short, basally narrow, ventro-lateral margins densely covered with multifurcate, scale-like, basad pointing setae; valva rectangular, margins almost straight, dorsal one somewhat convex, ventral one slightly concave, inner surface of valva distally and dorsally with numerous broad, multifurcate, scale-like setae and medio-ventrally with short, distally with ventral margin connected crista sacculi, which has distally a distinct tooth-like protrusion; juxta broad, very short protruded, manica with numerous sclerotized spines; saccus long, very narrow, apically rounded; phallus straight, narrow with short coecum penis; bulbous dorso-proximal part of vesica with numerous fine spines.   
 Female genitalia. Unknown.   
 Diagnosis. Putative synapomorphies are: (1) antenna very short, bipectinate, rami lacking at tip; (2) gnathos present, with unique, mitre-like shape; (3) setae of valva large, multifurcate, scale-like; (4) wings very narrow, hindwing tornus and anal veins somewhat reduced; (6) costal part of cell opaque.   
 Similar, scale-like setae of the valva are only known in Sphecosesia Hampson, 1910 from Southeast Asia (Kallies & Arita 2004). Species of this genus have also narrow wings and short antennas, but differ distinctly by the strongly wasp-waisted abdomen, the rough and short scales of the first and the smooth scales of the second palpomere rather than long, hair-like scales in Vespanthedon. The male genitalia of Sphecosesia have the uncus lobes very large (small in Vespanthedon) and lack the crista sacculi of the valva (present in Vespanthedon).   
 Distribution. Insufficiently known; Vespanthedon cerceris and V. chalciphora occur in Mozambique and Malawi, respectively.
description: Published as part of Bartsch, Daniel, 2013, Revisionary checklist of the Southern African Sesiini (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) with description of new species, pp. 1-54 in Zootaxa 3741 (1) on page 27, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3741.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/10099866