Pelecystola Meyrick 1920
Creators: name: Davis, Steve
name: Davis, Donald
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tineidae
Pelecystola

description: <i>Pelecystola</i> Meyrick <i>Pelecystola</i> Meyrick, 1920: 103. Type species: <i>Pelecystola decorata</i> Meyrick, 1920. <i>Zularcha</i> Meyrick, 1937: 75. Type species: <i>Zularcha melanochares</i> Meyrick, 1937. <i>Neurozestis</i> Meyrick, 1938: 25. Type species: <i>Neurozestis polysticha</i> Meyrick, 1938. <b>Adult.</b> Moderately large-sized tineid moths with forewing lengths 5.4–10 mm. <i>Head</i> (Figs 2–3): Vestiture rough; vertex and frons densely covered with erect, piliform scales with acute apices. Antenna simple, ciliate, bipectinate in <i>P. strigosa</i> Moore, ̴ 0.5– 0.6× length of forewing; scape slightly flattened, smoothly scaled, with pecten consisting of 6–25 bristles; flagellum with a single row of moderately broad scales dorsally on each segment. Eye moderately developed; interocular index ̴ 0.6; frons broad. Ocellus absent. Pilifer undeveloped. Mandible vestigial. Galea reduced, ̴ 0.9–1.0× length of maxillary palpus. Maxillary palpus elongate, 5-segmented, with apical segment minute; length ratio of segments from base: 1.0: 0.9: 1.0: 3.75: 0.3–0.4. Labial palpus well developed; length ratio of segments from base: 1.0: 3.2: 1.7; vestiture relatively smooth dorsally, moderately rough ventrally with 2–8 dark, elongate bristles arising mostly laterally along segment 2. <i>Thorax</i>: Forewing (Fig. 4) moderately slender, W/L ratio ̴ 0.35, apex moderately rounded. Venation well preserved with most veins distinct. Forewing venation variable, usually with all 5 branches of R present and separate; Rs2 absent in <i>P. decorata</i>, Rs 3 and 4 stalked in <i>P. decorata</i> and <i>P. strigosa</i>; accessory cell distinct, mostly closed; M1–3 all separate; CuA1–2 well preserved; CuP indistinct for most its length; A1 and 2 with basal fork, then fused nearly 2/3 their length; male retinaculum an elongate, basal, ventral fold, curled distally; female retinaculum consisting of a loose concentration of elongate hairs from ventral base of Sc. Hindwing W/L ratio ̴ 0.4; M1–3 all separate; CuA1 and 2 well developed; 1A + 2A well preserved; 3A distinct; frenula a single stout bristle in male, 2 tightly appressed bristles in female. Legs with tibial spur pattern of 0–2–4; epiphysis well developed, more than half the length of foretibia; tibial spurs of unequal lengths. <i>Abdomen</i>: Without specialized structures; S2 apodemes slender, nearly straight, elongate, ̴ 0.5–0.7× length of S2. Male coremata and female corethrogyne absent. <i>Male genitalia</i>: Uncus usually deeply bilobed, superficially bilobed in some African species. Gnathos absent. Vinculum and tegumen a relatively broad ring, with lateral fusion indistinct; saccus usually short, more elongate in <i>P. polysticha</i>. Valva deeply divided into two (cucullar and saccular) lobes; an elongate, slender stalk arising from extreme base of costal margin of valva which enlarges apically to form a spatulate tip bearing a pectinifer consisting of a single row of minute spines. Juxta absent. Aedoeagus usually a slender, moderate to elongate cylinder; cornuti absent. <i>Female genitalia</i>: Ovipositor elongate, telescoping. Posterior apophysis ̴ 1.7–1.9× length of anterior pair. Ventral pseudapophysis absent. Ostium bursae a sclerotized ring located near anterior margin of sternum 8. Ductus bursae slender, exceeding length of anterior apophysis, with lightly sclerotized antrum. Corpus bursae relatively large, ̴ 0.5–0.7× the length of ductus bursae, mostly membranous, with a V-shaped signum consisting of a pair of slender arms converging and partially fused posteriorly. <b>Discussion.</b> The generic and subfamily relationships of this aberrant genus are uncertain. Gozmány and Vári (1973) suggested that <i>Pelecystola</i> could be included within the Scardiinae based on superficial characters, a conclusion also followed by Sakai (2002). A specimen of the new species, <i>P. nearctica</i>, along with numerous other genera of Tineidae, have been sequenced for five nuclear genes as part of the Lepidoptera Tree of Life project, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Results from these sequences have yet to be analyzed, but it is hoped that they might provide better resolution of the subfamily relationships of <i>Pelecystola.</i> As pointed out by Gozmány and Vári (1973) and others, <i>Pelecystola</i> is largely characterized by the peculiar pedunculate pectinifers arising on long stalks from the costal base of the male valvae. As discussed by S. and D. Davis (2009), few tineid genera are known to possess a pectinifer on the valva. Of those that do, the slightly more complex pectinifers of the South American genus <i>Falsivalva</i> resemble those of <i>Pelecystola</i> the most in arising on slender stalks from the extreme base of the valvae. However, the two genera share little else in common. The male genitalia of <i>Falsivalva</i> differ from that of <i>Pelecystola</i> and all other Tineidae in the extreme development of a greatly lengthened and almost completely divided tegumen (Davis and Davis 2009). In addition, the female genitalia of <i>Falsivalva</i> lack signa.
description: Published as part of <i>Davis, Steve &amp; Davis, Donald, 2009, First report of the old world genus Pelecystola in North America, with description of a new species (Lepidoptera, Tineidae), pp. 69-78 in ZooKeys 25 (25)</i> on pages 70-71, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.25.197, http://zenodo.org/record/576559
description: {"references": ["Meyrick E (1920) Voyage de Ch. Allauaud et R. Jeannel en Afrrique Oriental, Resultats Scientifiques, Insectes Lepidopteres 2: 35 - 120.", "Meyrick E (1937) Exotic Microlepidoptera, 5 (pts. 3 - 5): 65 - 96.", "Meyrick E (1938) Tortricina and Tineina from the National Albert Park. Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge 14: 3 - 28.", "Gozmany LA, Vari L (1973) Th e Tineidae of the Ethiopian Region. Transvaal Museum, Memoir 18: i-vi, 1 - 238.", "Sakai M (2002) Systematic study of the family Tineidae of Japan (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Unpublished PhD Th esis. Kyushu University, Japan.", "Davis SR, Davis DR (2009) Neotropical Tineidae VIII: Falsivalva, a new genus of Tineidae from austral South America with extreme modification of the male postabdominal terga (Lepidoptera: Tineoidea). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 111 (2): 378 - 392."]}