Psilotreta Banks

Oláh, János & Johanson, Kjell Arne, 2010, Description of 33 new species of Calamoceratidae, Molannidae, Odontoceridae and Philorheithridae (Trichoptera), with detailed presentation of their cephalic setal warts and grooves 2457, Zootaxa 2457 (1), pp. 1-128 : 97

Psilotreta Banks

Psilotreta Banks, 1899: 213 .

Inthanopsyche Malicky, 1989 , new synonym.

When describing the genus Inthanopsyche, Malicky (1989) emphasized that it is similar to the genus Psilotreta . A main distinguishing character for Inthanopsyche is the presence of a long apical fork I in the forewings. An additional distinguishing character represents mesally located harpagones of the genitalia, which separated species of this genus from species in Psilotreta which have apically located harpagones. We have observed variously elongated forewing apical fork I in several Psilotreta species , and the length of fork I appears to vary between species in the same diagnostic species-groups. Beside P. trimeresuri diagnostic species-group, P. jaroschi Malicky in the P. japonica diagnostic species-group has a long fork I in the male forewings, but being short in the females. The mesal position of the harpagones appears to represent a synapomorphy for the Psilotreta species that are otherwise characterized by having elongated forewing fork I. We have compared all Psilotreta species having mesally located harpagones with species having variously elongate fork I and found that Inthanopsyche is a diagnostic species-group inside Psilotreta , and Inthanopsyche is therefore synonymised with Psilothreta. Thamsenanupap et al. (2005) also demonstrated that there are no clear difference between the larvae of Psilotreta and the larvae of Inthanopsyche .

The genus Psilotreta includes 3 diagnostic species-groups, being distinguished on the following genitalic characters: (1) the position of the harpago on the coxopodites; (2) the number and size of apical spines on the harpagones; and (3) the presence or absence of phallic parameres.