Dolecta Herrich-Schäffer, [1854]

Naydenov, Artem E., Yakovlev, Roman V., Penco, Fernando C. & Sinyaev, Victor V., 2020, New data on Neotropical Carpenter-Moths of Subfamily Hypoptinae Neumoegen & Dyar, 1894 (Lepidoptera: Cossidae). II. A review of the genus Dolecta Herrich-Schäffer, [1854], with description of seventeen new species, Ecologica Montenegrina 35, pp. 82-114 : 84

Genus Dolecta Herrich-Schäffer, [1854] stat. res.

Type species (by monotypy): Dolecta scariosa Herrich-Schäffer, [1854] , Sammlung neuer oder wenig bekannter Aussereuropäischer Schmetterlinge: Fig. 148.

Description. Size medium, colour dark; antenna relatively short (about 1/3 of fore wing in length), with short bipectinate crest. Fore wing apically rounded, dark, with expressed spotty and undulated pattern of darker and lighter elements. Hind wing relatively short, with the same spotty and undulated pattern as on fore wing, but less expressed.

Male genitalia. Uncus long, massive, shaped as deeply bifurcated fork; gnathos arms thin, short, gradually narrowing from base to apex; gnathos absent; valve relatively short, often with a more or less expressed process on costal edge (in distal third); juxta cup-like with elongated, often sharp, abdominal process; saccus tiny; phallus very short (practically, shorter than valve, rarely longer), basally very wide, gradually narrowing to apex, vesica aperture in dorso-apical position, vesica without cornuti.

Female genitalia. Ovipositor short; papillae anales tapered, densely covered with small spikes; anterior and posterior apophyses very short, approximately equal in length; ostium wide, cup-like; ductus of bursae copulatrix short, relatively wide; bursa copulatrix bag-like, without signa.

Diagnosis. The new genus clearly differs from the genera which were previously considered its synonyms:

- from Hypopta – by the absence of the large plate-like harpe at costal edge of the valve with serrated edge, and by the bifurcated uncus;

- from Breyeriana – by the absence of the tooth-like cornutus in the vesica and by the bifurcated uncus;

- from the recently described genera with the forked uncus ( Yakovlev et al. 2019) – by the very short phallus without cornuti, and by the elongated abdominal process of the juxta.

Distribution. Central and Southern America (from Costa Rica and Panama to Northern Argentina and Paraguay). The genus is endemic for the Neotropical biogeoraphic region.