Mahasena Moore, 1877

Beaver, Ethan P. & Zwick, Andreas, 2025, Two genera newly recorded from Australia: Mahasena Moore and Manatha Moore (Lepidoptera: Psychidae: Oiketicinae), each with a new species, Zootaxa 5711 (4), pp. 563-578 : 566

Mahasena Moore, 1877

= Mahasena Moore, 1877 : pg. 601.

Type species: Mahasena andamana Moore, 1877 , by monotypy.

= Plateumeta Butler, 1881 : pg. 22. Junior subjective synonym ( Dierl 1968).

Type species: Plateumeta aurea Butler, 1881 , by original designation.

= Claniades Bethune-Baker, 1908 : pg. 182, syn. nov.

Type species: Claniades ekeikei Bethune-Baker, 1908 , by original designation.

Synonymic remarks. Claniades was erected by Bethune-Baker (1908) on the basis of a single specimen from Ekeikei, Papua New Guinea, without comment upon or reference to the genus Mahasena , which he may have been unaware of or unfamiliar with. The description given is brief, and no diagnostic information is provided to explain how Claniades differs from any other psychid genus. From an examination of the type specimen of Mahasena ekeikei in the NHMUK ( Fig. 2E ), it is apparent that the specimen is morphologically identical to that of all other Mahasena specimens collected throughout the island of New Guinea (i.e. Fig. 2C–D ). Although the holotype could not be dissected due to age and historical significance, other specimens from New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago were dissected and sequenced, where the genitalia conform to that of Mahasena and the sequence is nested deeply within Mahasena in our phylogeny ( Fig. 1 ). Due to the priority of the name Mahasena and the lack of any diagnostic characters that exist to differentiate the two genera, Claniades is here treated as a junior subjective synonym.

Diagnosis. Mahasena are distinguished among large Oiketicinae by the shape of the male genitalia, which have an extremely long saccus, comprising about half the length of the genitalia; they have the vinculum flared laterally, the basal costal lobe swollen, pronounced and subtriangular, and the cornuti of the vesica numerous and heavily sclerotised ( Fig. 3A–B ). By these features, the superficially similar genera Clania Walker and Amatissa Walker are excluded, which otherwise have similarly sized and coloured species with a similar wing shape. The only similar genus is the related Manatha , a genus of smaller species which differ in their genitalia structures by having a more ‘typical’ vinculum, without the lateral flare seen in Mahasena . A defining synapomorphic trait of Mahasena would appear to be the presence of a laterally flared vinculum with an elongate saccus. The phallus of Manatha is considerably shorter relative to the rest of the genitalia as compared with that of Mahasena . The larval life history is also distinctive, with Mahasena species constructing a bag of foliage fragments haphazardly attached to a silk base ( Fig. 2F ) as compared with the bare silken structure of Manatha ( Hӓttenschwiler et al. 2013: fig. 3).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood phylogram of 17 Mahasena and 12 Manatha samples with outgroups Amatissa and Clania, based on mt COI barcode sequences. To the right are the six key taxa of interest in the present study, in descending order; Mahasena corbetti Tams, Mahasena inornata sp. nov., Mahasena ekeikei (Bethune-Baker) comb. nov., Manatha conglacia Hättenschwiler et al., Manatha prolixa sp. nov., and Manatha albipes Moore. The two new species are highlighted by pinkpurple gradient for Mahasena inornata sp. nov., and by light to dark blue gradient for Manatha prolixa sp. nov.

FIGURE 2. Mahasena species of Australia and New Guinea, dorsal and ventral; A–B, M. inornata sp. nov. holotype male from near Weipa, Queensland, Australia; C–F, M. ekeikei comb. nov.; C–D, male from Torricelli Mountains, Papua New Guinea; E, holotype, from Ekeikei, F, larval bag from Bebere Plantation, West New Britain, anterior aperture to the left. Scale bars all 10 mm.

FIGURE 3. Morphological details of Mahasena spp.: M. inornata sp. nov., A, male genitalia (paratype, voucher EPB-237); C, wings prepared and stained to visualise venation structure; D, forewing fringe scales; E, hindwing fringe scales; M. ekeikei comb. nov., B, male genitalia (voucher EPB-244); F, forewing fringe scales; G, hindwing fringe scales. Note the grey bar in E and G denote the position of the wing membrane, to aid in comparison of scale proportions in both figures. Scale bar in A and B = 500 µm, C = 2 mm, D–G = 200 µm. Abbreviations for genital structures: Bl = Basal costal lobe. Cr = cornuti. Ph = phallus. Su = saccus. Te = tegumen. Va = valva. Vi = vinculum. For wing venation: An = Analis. CuA = Cubitus anterior. CuP = Cubitus posterior. M = Media. R = Radius. Rs = Radial sector. Sc = Subcosta.