Zophodiodes Ragonot, 1887

Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Budashkin, Yuriy & Yepishin, Viktor, 2020, Review of the tribe Anerastiini (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Phycitinae) from Ukraine, Zootaxa 4718 (1), pp. 1-24 : 16-19

Genus Zophodiodes Ragonot, 1887

Type species: Zophodiodes leucocostella Ragonot, 1887: 241 , by monotypy.

= Hafisia Amsel, 1950: 242 , syn. nov.

Type species: Hafisia lundbladi Amsel, 1950: 242 , by monotypy.

Diagnosis. Zophodiodes is characterized by posteriorely bipartite uncus with long and narrow lobes, long and nar- row, posteriorely projecting and bifurcated lobe of gnathos, broad valva and aedeagus with one big cornutus in the vesica in the male genitalia. In the female genitalia hindmargin of tergum VIII broad with W-shaped emargination, ductus bursae short with a long colliculum, corpus bursae very long, signum absent. Externally Zophodiodes can be recognized by unipectinate antennae in male with basal flagellomerus bearing a sinus containg tuft of raised scales.

Remarks. Amsel (1950) did not find the appropriate position for Zophodiodes ( Hafisia sensu Amsel ) within Pyralidae . Leraut (2014) mentioned this genus in connection with Paramaxillaria meretrix ( Staudinger, 1879) , but without providing any suggestions concerning possible relation of these species.

Our examination of external and genitalia characters of Zophodiodes suggests that this genus shows close affinity to the tribe Anerastiini rather than other Phycitinae. Zophodiodes shares with Anerastiini such characters as a reduced proboscis, a bipartite uncus in the male genitalia, the U-or W-shaped emarginated hindmargin of tergum VIII and the modified ovipositor in the female genitalia. Hence, we considered Zophodiodes a member of Anerastiini . Within the tribe Zophodiodes shows close relation to Polyochodes Chrétien, 1911 (= Ardekania Amsel, 1951 ) in respect of the male genitalia, but differs from this and other related genera by posteriorely bifurcated gnathos. Acritonia differs additionally in the shorter lobes of gnatos and absence of long cornutus in the vesica of the aedeagus. Saluria Ragonot, 1887 has similar valva and uncus, but the gnathos is shorter, hook-shaped rather than straight and the vesica with cornuti of different shape.

Distribution. The monotypic genus with one species in the Palaearctic region.