Micrallo St Laurent & C. Mielke, 2016

Laurent, Ryan A. St & Kawahara, Akito Y., 2019, Reclassification of the Sack-bearer Moths (Lepidoptera, Mimallonoidea, Mimallonidae), ZooKeys 815, pp. 1-114 : 26

Micrallo St Laurent & C. Mielke, 2016 Figs 23, 60, 123, 124

Type species.

Micrallo minutus St Laurent & C. Mielke, 2016.

Diagnosis.

Tiny to small (forewing length: 11.5-15 mm) silver gray mimallonids, with elongate triangular forewings, and well-defined, straight forewing postmedial lines that are perpendicularly angled toward the costa, immediately separates this genus from others in the family.

Apomorphies.

(1) Deeply curled, concave tegumen + vinculum shaped like a broad cesta of Jai alai in the lateral aspect; (2) Basally membranous, distally narrowed, terminally clubbed valvae (Fig. 23a); (3) Membranous pockets encase valvae, contain thick, elongate deciduous setae (Fig. 23b).

Remarks.

St Laurent et al. (2018a) did not include this genus in their phylogeny and instead placed this genus in Druenticinae: Druenticini based on morphology, due to strong genitalia similarities with the sampled genus Procinnus , particularly the flattened, spade-like phallus, which we now also observe in the newly described Lepismalla . All morphological phylogenetic analyses carried out here also place Micrallo within Druenticini , either sister to Ulaluma (parsimony analysis) or to Procinnus + Lepismalla (both ML analyses), thus confirming the tribal placement of St Laurent et al. (2018a).

An undescribed species that likely belongs to this genus is larger and browner than M. minutus , but otherwise bears the same arrangements of wing markings and genital configuration.