Brypoctia strigifer ( Dyar, 1910 )

Penco, Fernando C., Yakovlev, Roman V. & Witt, Thomas J., 2016, Taxonomic notes on the genera Brypoctia Schoorl, 1990 and Schreiteriana Fletcher & Nye, 1982 (Lepidoptera, Cossidae), Zootaxa 4205 (3), pp. 297-300 : 297-299

Brypoctia strigifer ( Dyar, 1910)

( Figs. 1 ¯2; 5¯6)

Xyleutes strigifer Dyar, 1910: 269 .

Type locality. Orizaba , [Veracruz State], Mexico [18°51’N / 97°06’W].

Type material. holotype, male (by original designation) in USNM.

Distribution. Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia ( Schoorl 1990).

Material examined. 1 ♂, Mexico, Oaxaca Prov., Metates, 40 km S Valle national, 900 m, 5‾ 13.VII.1998, leg. Salk, ex coll. R. Brechlin (GenPrMWM: 28.541, MWM) ; 1 ♂, Guatemala, Peten: Yaxha national park, lowland rainforest, 17°04.29’ N / 89°23.85’ W, 300 m, 11‾ 13.VII.2002, leg. J.- P. Rudloff (GenPrMWM: 28.540, MWM).

Description of male genitalia. Uncus with tapered apex; gnathos arms modified in shape of wide strongly sclerotized triangular plates with wrinkled edges, not fused; valva wide, leaf-like, costal edge even, caudal edge obliquely cut, anal edge smoothly rounded; sacculus with thin long process, in length equal to ¼ of valva; juxta large, with two long leaf-like lateral processes; saccus large, semicircular; phallus thick, 3× shorter than valva; vesica with long sclerotized cord in lateral surface.

Taxonomic notes. In the valvae structure, by the presence of the long thin process on the abdominal edge of the valve, this genus differs sharply from all other representatives of the Zeuzerinae , except for the endemic Australian genus Sympycnodes Turner, 1932 . A recent revision by Kallies & Hilton (2012) includes the description of six new species of the Sympycnodes , combined by the authors into the “ Sympycnodes digitata group”. As a diagnostic feature, they mention “presence of a crista on the edge of the valva”. The structure of the gnathos arms of B. strigifer ( Dyar, 1910) is unique and represents the diagnostic feature of the genus Brypoctia Schoorl, 1990 .