Tinthiini, Le Cerf, 1917

Liang, Jia-Yuan & Hsu, Yu-Feng, 2017, Two new species of clearwing moths (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) from Taiwan, Zootaxa 4299 (3), pp. 415-422 : 416

Diagnoses of Tinthiini and Melittiini

In Tinthiini forewing is usually opaque and/or with small transparent areas; four M+Cu veins are present, with veins M3 or Cu2 occasionally absent. Tegumen is broad without gnathos; uncus is elongate. 115 species in 16 genera are currently recognized according to Pühringer & Kallies (2017). Tinthiini are world-wide distributed, the Australian Region an exception. The diversity of Tinthiini in the Oriental Region is quite high, with 11 genera and 65 described species known.

In Melittiini Cu1 of hind wing arises conspicuously before crossvein; hind tibia and tarsus are long and strongly tufted. Valve is covered with dense hairs apically; uncus is bilobed apically. Corpus bursae usually possesses a characteristic signum, which is large in size, pyriform in shape, with numerous transverse, wellsclerotized, dentate stripes. Melittiini occur in all zoogeographical regions, with 6 genera and 158 species recognized. Most species inhabit tropical or subtropical zone ( Pühringer & Kallies 2017).

The most recent taxonomic work on Tinthiini in Taiwan was conducted by Arita & Gorbunov (2001). They reported six species in four genera. The most recent taxonomic work on Melittiini in Taiwan was done by Arita & Gorbunov (2002), with 5 species in two genera known.

The present article provides taxonomic treatments, and documenting host associations and immature biology for these two species.