Strophedra Herrich-Schäffer, 1853

Strophedra Herrich-Schäffer, 1853 . Replacement name for Strophosoma .

S trophosoma Herrich-Schäffer, 1853. Type species: Strophedra vigeliana Herrich-Schäffer, 1853 [= Pyralis nitidana Fabricius, 1794]. Preoccupied.

Strophedromopha Diakonoff, 1976. Type species: Strophedromorpha mica Diakonoff, 1976, by original designation.

Diagnosis. Strophedra is characterized by a small to very small body size; a subovate (or rarely subtriangular) forewing bearing an ocelloid patch with the outer edge absent or reduced; a semiovate hindwing with sexually dimorphic veins (Figs. 1, 2), usually without a trace of Rs or rarely with Sc+R1 and Rs fused before the outer edge of the discal cell in the male, and in the female Sc+R1 and Rs free and Rs to the costa, Rs and M1 separate at the base, M3 and CuA1 short-stalked; and the female frenulum with two bristles. In the male, the 8th tergum of the abdomen is hood-shaped with a pair of tufts of long hair-like scales arising from shallow membranous pockets from its anterior corners. The male genitalia are characterized by the tegumen pointed at the top, in some species with a pair of lateral flaps, and the phallus usually narrowed distally and fused with the caulis in its basal 1/5. The female genitalia are characterized by the 7th sternite excavated on the posterior margin and having a median process (absent in S. pericapna).

Strophedra is closely related to Andrioplecta Obraztsov, 1968 and Ixonympha Komai & Horak, 2006 by sharing the following synapomorphies: Sc+R1 and Rs entirely fused in the male forewing, M3 and CuA1 stalked in the hindwing, and two bristles in the female frenulum (Horak 2006). Strophedra can be distinguished from Andrioplecta by the forewing lacking an oblique dark fuscous submedian patch, which is present in the latter genus. Strophedra can be distinguished from Ixonympha by the forewing lacking a broad whitish band from 3/4 the distance of the costa to the tornus, and the hindwing grayish to dark brown, whereas in Ixonympha the forewing has the above mentioned band and the hindwing is orange.

Strophedra comprises nine described species occurring in the Palearctic and the Oriental regions (Komai 1999; Brown 2005). In China, two species of Strophedra were recorded previously (Li et. al. 2012). In this paper, we treat seven species based on Chinese material, including four new species and one species new for the Chinese fauna.