Edosa Walker, 1866

Yang, Linlin, Wang, Shuxia & Li, Houhun, 2014, A taxonomic revision of the genus Edosa Walker, 1886 from China (Lepidoptera, Tineidae, Perissomasticinae), Zootaxa 3777 (1), pp. 1-102 : 9-10

Edosa Walker, 1866

Edosa Walker, 1866: 1818 . Type species: Edosa hemichrysella Walker, 1866: 1819 , by monotypy. [Java].

Chrysoryctis Meyrick, 1886: 530 . Type species: Oecophora irruptella Walker, 1864: 686 , by subsequent designation by Fletcher, 1929. [ Australia]. Synonymized by Robinson & Nielsen, 1993: 193.

Episcardia Ragonot, 1895: 105 . Type species: Psecadia lardatella Lederer, 1858 , by monotypy. [ Syria] Synonymized by Robinson & Nielsen, 1993: 193.

Cylicobathra Meyrick, 1920: 99 . Type species: Cylicobathra chionarga Meyrick, 1920 , by original designation and monotypy. [ Kenya]. Synonymized by Robinson, 2008a: 346.

Sphallesthasis Gozmány, 1959: 347 . Type species: Sphallesthasis similis Gozmány, 1959 , by original designation. [ Afghanistan]. Synonymized by Robinson & Nielsen, 1993: 193.

Phalloscardia Gozmány, 1966a: 62 . Type species: Tinea semiumbrata Meyrick, 1920 , by original designation and monotypy. [ Kenya]. Synonymized by Robinson, 2008a: 346.

Bilobatana Zagulajev, 1975: 250 [as subgenus]. Type species: Tinea caerulipennis Erschoff, 1874 , by original designation. [ Iran] Synonymized by Robinson and Nielsen, 1993: 193.

Neoepiscardia Petersen & Gaedike, 1982: 336 . Type species: Neoepiscardia islamella Petersen and Gaedike, 1982 , by original designation. [ Saudi Arabia]. Synonymized by Robinson, 2008a: 346.

Diagnosis. Species of Edosa are small to medium size, usually colored brown. Edosa is characterized by the combination of the following characters: the antenna extending 0.7–0.9× length of the forewing, the scape slightly expanded and bearing a few black pecten bristles; the labial palpus three-segmented, the second segment with a few lateral bristles, the third segment with vom-Rath organ near apex; the maxillary palpus usually five-segmented, elongate; the forewing usually unicolorous, in various shades of brown, with individual scales dark-tipped in almost all species, usually dark along basal 1/3 or 2/3 of costa; all veins present; the cell of forewing elongate, with faint trace of chorda and branched M; the cell of hindwing with weak trace of forked M; the foretibial epiphysis present, the tarsi with a few scattered spines; the small coremata of eighth segment in male with spicular scales in most species, the vinculum fused with tegumen, the gnathos and saccus absent, the uncus with a broad, shouldered base and always bilobed, the cylindrical aedeagus without a cornutus and the bulbus ejaculatorius with distal section abruptly differentiated into a ‘cup’ in the male genitalia; the membrane between the seventh and eighth segments with a large invaginated tripartite corethrogyne, the ductus bursae or the posterior part of the corpus bursae possessing a complex colliculum in the female genitalia.

Edosa shares some similarities with other Perissomasticine genera, but can be recognized by the genital characters. In the male genitalia, the tegumen is strongly reflexed caudally in both Perissomastix Warren et Rothschild, 1905 and Ectabola Gozmány, 1966 , but not in Edosa ( Robinson 2008a) ; the uncus has a broad, shouldered base articulated with the tegumen in Edosa , whereas the uncus is not extended basally and indistinguishable from the tegumen in Perissomastix , Ectabola and Hyperbola Gozmány, 1965 ; the uncus is always bilobed in Edosa , but fused, hooked (subgenus Lazocatena Gozmány, 1959 ) or with a lateral prong (subgenus Perissomastix ), or with a ventral lobe and a dorsal appendage (subgenus Psolarcha Meyrick, 1933 ) in Perissomastix , fused dorsally, with robust spines and spiniform scales in Ectabola , and bearing short, dark pegs apically in Hyperbola . In the female genitalia, the ovipositor is shorter and broader, the anal papillae are larger in Perissomastix and Ectabola than in Edosa ; the apophyses posteriores subtend a pair of hairy pads in Perissomastix , but not in Edosa ; the complex colliculum is always present in Edosa , but barely so in other genera, represented only by one or two minute spines if present.

Biology. Little is known about the biology of Edosa . Meyrick (1934) mentioned that larvae of E. subochraceella ( Walsingham, 1886) were ‘found several times in the empty bags of big Psychidae species’ in Guangzhou Province, China. Robinson (1985b) regarded this as an anomalous or erroneous record or, at least, an atypical life-history, since extensive rearing of Psychidae in many parts of the world failed to produce further Edosa . Robinson (2008a) mentioned that Edosa ‘has a life history that is utterly opaque’, and suspected that ‘the larvae inhabit a niche that is somewhat unusual and not sampled routinely using techniques that retrieve small to medium-sized Lepidoptera larvae’.

Distribution. Palearctic Region, Oriental Region, Afrotropical Region and Australia Region.