Fulcrifera Danilevsky and Kunzetsov, 1968

Razowski, Józef & Brown, John W., 2012, Descriptions of new Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) reared from native fruit in Kenya, Zootaxa 3222, pp. 1-27 : 20

Fulcrifera Danilevsky and Kunzetsov, 1968

Type species: Laspeyresia luteiceps Kuznetsov, 1962 .

According to Horak (2006), “The monophyly of Fulcrifera is supported by the short to very long, heavily sclerotised process that seemingly looks like a dorsal process of the aedeagus but originates from the dorsal portion of the anellus next to the aedeagus.” Illustrations of the genitalia can be found in Clarke (1958), Danilevsky and Kunzetsov (1968), and Horak (2006).

Brown (2005) included 14 species in Fulcrifera , distributed through the eastern Palearctic, Oriental, and Afrotropical regions; Horak (2006) described one new species from Australia and indicated that at least seven additional unidentified species are known from that continent. Razowski and Krüger (2007) transferred four South African species to the genus, bringing to 19 the number of described species assigned to Fulcrifera .

Although there is little doubt that F. crotalariae , described below, is congeneric with F. aphrospila (Meyrick, 1921) (TL: South Africa), F. ha l m y r is (Meyrick, 1909) (TL: South Africa), and F. periculosa ( Meyrick, 1913) (TL: South Africa), it is possible that these four Afrotropical species are not congeneric with other Old World species of Fulcrifera . All four lack the elongate, heavily sclerotized process that originates from the dorsal portion of the anellus and parallels the phallus. However, it is possible that the much shorter structure situated immediately dorsal to the basal portion of the phallus and referred to as the “fulcrum” by Razowski and Krüger (2007) is homologous with that of other Old World Fulcrifera .