Crypsithyris Meyrick, 1907

Huang, Guo-Hua, Hirowatari, Toshiya & Wang, Min, 2009, The genus Crypsithyris Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Tineidae) in Guangdong Province, China, with comments on the biology and the description of a new species, Zootaxa 2310, pp. 51-58 : 52

Crypsithyris Meyrick, 1907

Crypsithyris Meyrick, 1907 , J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 17: 752. Type-species: Crypsithyris mesodyas Meyrick, 1907 , J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 17: 753, by original designation. Type locality: Sri Lanka.

Crypsithyris species are small- to medium-sized moths, with a forewing length of 3.5–6.0 mm. The antenna is as long as or longer than the forewing; the maxillary palpus is 5-segmented; and the labial palpus has bristles laterally and apically. The forewing has a subhyaline spot in the discoidal cell (indistinct in some species) and lacks vein R1, and in the hindwing CuA2 is short. In the male genitalia, the valva is elongate; the saccus is triangular or rod-shaped; the juxta usually is elongate, separated from the vinculum; and the transtilla usually is developed. The female genitalia are unique, with a lantern-shaped corpus bursae surrounded by a flangeshaped sclerite bearing spinelike processes; abdominal segment VIII is narrow, circumfused with dense strong thick bristles.

Diagnosis. Superficially, Crypsithyris Meyrick, 1907 , Monopis Hübner , [1825], Miramonopis Gozmány, 1966 , and Crypsithyrodes Zimmerman, 1978 share a characteristic subhyaline spot on the forewing ( Meyrick 1907; Gozmány 1966; Zimmerman 1978). However, Crypsithyris is distinguished easily from those genera by the absence of forewing vein R1 and by the presence of a lantern-shaped corpus bursae. Crypsithyris also differs in the following characters: in Monopis the juxta of the male genitalia is fused with the vinculum, whereas it is not in Crypsithyris ; in Crypsithyrodes all M- and Cu-branches of the forewing are free, and the uncus is T-shaped, whereas in Crypsithyris R4 and R5 of the forewing are long-stalked or fused, and the uncus is elongate-triangular with a minute hook at the apex; and in Miramonopis the aedeagus bears a thorn-like subapical carina ( Robinson & Nielsen 1993) that is lacking in Crypsithyris .

The larval cases of C. japonica , C. saigusai , and C. cana are similar to those of Tinea species: oblong and flat, weakly constricted and with an opening at each, and the dorsal and ventral surfaces are weakly convex ( Sakai & Saigusa 2002). The cases are spun with silk and covered with sand grains.

Distribution. The genus occurs in China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Burma, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Zaire, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Central African Rep., Congo, Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Australia, Samoa, and the Society Islands.