Erechthias Ancistrosema

''Erechthias'' is a genus of the fungus moth family, Tineidae. Therein, it belongs to the subfamily Erechthiinae, of which it is the type genus. The exact circumscription of this genus is still disputed, but it may encompass more than 150 species.

Systematics and taxonomy

Here, the genus is treated in the wide circumscription ('' sensu lato'') adopted by many authors today, and representing the presumed core group of the Erechthiinae. Delimited thus, ''Erechthias'' includes several other genera, some of which have occasionally been treated as independent even by fairly recent authors. They are still rather similar and contain moths that are (at least overwhelmingly) very closely related. Still, they differ in details such as the wing venation – with ''Erechthias'' ''sensu stricto'' having all veins separate (as opposed to e.g. the ''Decadarchis'' group, which has hindwing veins 5 and 6 stalked) – or the clasper's harpe being nude in ''Erechthias s.str.'' but bearing a cluster of setae on the costa. However, the female genitals look almost alike in all of them.

Many of these supposedly distinct genera were always considered monotypic and are unlikely to be valid. More notable are ''Decadarchis'' (including ''Caryolestis'', ''Nesoxena'', ''Pantheus'' and perhaps others) and ''Ereunetis'' (including ''Lepidobregma'' and ''Neodecadarchis''); these two are more frequently considered separate genera than other subgroups of ''Erechthias''. The members of the former (sub)genus were in fact at first often placed in '' Tinea'' of subfamily Tineinae. Other species of ''Erechthias'' were historically assigned to ''Acridotarsa'' – also of the Tineinae ('' E. deloneura'') – or to ''Mesopherna'' of the Myrmecozelinae ('' E. epomadia''). '' E. glyphidaula'' has been a particular source of confusion; even veteran researcher Edward Meyrick, in some of his last works, no less than three times established a new monotypic genus for this species.

More unusually, some species of ''Erechthias'' were initially mistaken as members of the cosmet moth genus ''Cosmopteryx'' ('' E. cyanosticta'') and the ermine moth genus '' Argyresthia'' ('' E. zebrina''); these genera are basal Ditrysia not particularly closely related to ''Erechthias''. The enigmatic "genus" ''Acrocenotes'' – a single species initially held to belong in the Plutellidae, which are also not close relatives of ''Erechthias'' – is also included here in the present treatment.

As another taxonomic curiosity of this genus, '' E. beeblebroxi'' is named after Douglas Adams's famous two-headed science fiction character Zaphod Beeblebrox; the moth has a "false head" pattern that presumably helps to confuse would-be predators.

Finally, the actual delimitation of ''Erechthias'' against related genera such as '' Comodica'' still needs to be determined. For example, whether the Erechthiinae '' Callicerastis stagmatias'' and ''Mecomodica fullawayi'' are justifiably separated in their monotypic genera or better included in ''Erechthias'' (as are all the other species once placed in ''Callicerastis'') is disputed; the latter in particular seems to be somewhat intermediate between ''Comodica'' and ''Erechthias''.

Selected species

The numerous species of ''Erechthias'' include:

* ''Erechthias acontistes'' Meyrick, 1880
* '' Erechthias acontotypa'' Turner, 1926
* ''Erechthias acroleuca'' Turner, 1923
* '' Erechthias aellophora'' Meyrick, 1880
* '' Erechthias ancistrosema'' Turner, 1939
* ''Erechthias ascensionae''
* '' Erechthias articulosa'' Meyrick, 1921
* '' Erechthias aspera'' (J.F.G.Clarke, 1986)
* '' Erechthias beeblebroxi'' Robinson & Nielsen, 1993
* ''Erechthias capnitis'' (Turner, 1918) (type of ''Empaesta'')
* '' Erechthias celestra'' (J.F.G.Clarke, 1986)
* ''Erechthias celetica'' Turner, 1923
* '' Erechthias centroscia'' (Turner, 1933) (type of ''Gongylodes'')
* ''Erechthias charadrota'' Meyrick, 1880
* ''Erechthias chasmatias'' (Meyrick, 1880) (type of ''Hectacma'')
* ''Erechthias chionodira''
* ''Erechthias cirrhogramma'' (J.F.G.Clarke, 1971)
* ''Erechthias citrinopa'' (Lower, 1905) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* ''Erechthias clistopa'' (Meyrick, 1929)
* ''Erechthias contributa'' (Meyrick, 1932) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* '' Erechthias coleosema'' (Meyrick, 1934)
* ''Erechthias cyanosticta'' (Lower, 1916)
* ''Erechthias darwini''
* ''Erechthias decaspila'' (Lower, 1905) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* ''Erechthias deloneura'' (Turner, 1923)
* '' Erechthias diacrita'' (Turner, 1923)
* ''Erechthias diaphora''
* ''Erechthias dochmogramma'' (Lower, 1916) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* ''Erechthias dracaenura''
* '' Erechthias elaeorrhoa'' Meyrick, 1880
* ''Erechthias epispora'' (Lower, 1905) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* ''Erechthias epomadia'' (Turner, 1923)
* ''Erechthias erebocosma'' (Meyrick, 1893)
* ''Erechthias eurynipha'' (Turner, 1923) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* ''Erechthias flavistriata'' – sugarcane bud moth (type of ''Neodecadarchis'')
* ''Erechthias glyphidaula'' (Meyrick, 1933) (type of ''Amphisyncentris'')
* ''Erechthias grayi''
* ''Erechthias incongrua'' (J.F.G.Clarke, 1986)
* ''Erechthias iseres'' (Turner, 1917)
* ''Erechthias iuloptera'' (Meyrick, 1880) (type of ''Ereunetis'')
* ''Erechthias kerri''
* ''Erechthias lychnopa'' Meyrick, 1927
* '' Erechthias minuscula'' – erechthias clothes moth (type of ''Lepidobregma'')
* '' Erechthias molynta''
* ''Erechthias mucronata'' (Meyrick, 1921) (type of ''Zanclopseustis'')
* '' Erechthias mystacinella'' – curve-winged apple moth
* ''Erechthias niphadopla'' Meyrick, 1880
* '' Erechthias niphoplaca'' (Turner, 1923)
* ''Erechthias orchestris'' (Turner, 1932)
* ''Erechthias oxymacha'' (Meyrick, 1893)
* ''Erechthias oxytona'' (Meyrick, 1893)
* ''Erechthias penicillata'' (type of ''Pantheus'')
* ''Erechthias percnomicta'' (Meyrick, 1934)
* '' Erechthias phileris'' (Meyrick, 1893)
* '' Erechthias photophanes'' (Meyrick, 1917)
* ''Erechthias physocapna'' (Meyrick, 1929)
* ''Erechthias polionota'' Turner, 1923
* '' Erechthias polyplecta'' Turner, 1923
* ''Erechthias praedatrix'' (Meyrick, 1934) (type of ''Caryolestis'')
* ''Erechthias psammaula'' (Meyrick, 1921)
* ''Erechthias rufimacula'' (Meyrick, 1934)
* ''Erechthias saitoi'' (Moriuti & Kadohara, 1994) (sometimes in ''Comodica'')
* ''Erechthias scythromorpha'' (Turner, 1926)
* ''Erechthias sphenotoma'' (Meyrick, 1935) (type of ''Aeolarchis'')
* ''Erechthias simulans'' (type of ''Decadarchis'')
* ''Erechthias sinapifera'' (Turner, 1926)
* '' Erechthias strangulata'' (Meyrick, 1929) (type of ''Nesoxena'')
* '' Erechthias symmacha'' (Meyrick, 1893)
* '' Erechthias trigonosema'' (Turner, 1923)
* ''Erechthias tritogramma'' (J.F.G.Clarke, 1986)
* '' Erechthias zebrina'' (type of ''Tinexotaxa'')

Synonyms

Times and again, groups of these moths have been proposed for separation in distinct genera. These junior synonyms of ''Erechthias'', in the circumscription used here, are:Pitkin & Jenkins (2004), ABRS (2010)

* ''Acrocenotes'' A.N.Diakonoff, 1968
* ''Aeolarchis'' Meyrick, 1935
* ''Amphisyncentris'' Meyrick, 1933
* ''Anemerarcha'' Meyrick, 1937
* ''Caryolestis'' Meyrick, 1934
* ''Decadarchis'' Meyrick, 1886
* ''Empaesta'' Bradley, 1956
* ''Ereunetis'' Meyrick, 1880
* ''Gongylodes'' A.J.Turner, 1933
* ''Hectacma'' Meyrick, 1915
* ''Lepidobregma'' Zimmerman, 1978
* ''Neodecadarchis'' Zimmerman, 1978
* ''Nesoxena'' Meyrick, 1929
* ''Pantheus'' Zimmerman, 1978
* ''Tinexotaxa'' Gozmany, 1968
* ''Triadogona'' Meyrick, 1937
* ''Zanclopseustis'' Meyrick, 1921

Footnotes

References

* (2010): Australian Faunal Directory &ndash
''Erechthias''
Version of 2010-NOV-15. Retrieved 2011-DEC-23.
* (1986): Pyralidae and Microlepidoptera of the Marquesas Archipelago. ''Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology'' 416: 1-485
PDF fulltext
(214 MB!)
* (2004)
Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species
&ndash
''Erechthias''
Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2011-DEC-23.
* 011br>Global Taxonomic Database of Tineidae (Lepidoptera)
Retrieved 2011-DEC-23.

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5385380

Moth genera
Erechthiinae
Taxa named by Edward Meyrick