Ptilothyris Walsingham, 1891

Park, Kyu-Tek & Karisch, Timm, 2021, The family Lecithoceridae (Lepidoptera, Gelechioidea) from Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea), with descriptions of five new species, Zootaxa 4995 (3), pp. 581-593 : 588

Genus Ptilothyris Walsingham, 1891

Type species: Ptilothyris purpurea Walsingham, 1897 . Type locality: Nigeria .

The genus Ptilothyris is also an Afrotropical genus, comprising about 20 species in the region ( De Prins & De Prins 2020). The genus is superficially similar to Thubdora Park, 2018 in the wing venation, but it can be distinguished by the forewing more elongated and the antenna strongly bipectinate, usually dark brown, more or less flattened in basal half or longer, then creamy white beyond. The male genitalia can also be distinguished from those of Thubdora by the uncus broadly developed, as wide as the basal plate of gnathos, fan-shaped; the gnathos with broad basal plate, usually trifurcate caudally with semi-ovate median lobe and similar sized lateral lobes; the juxta forming double plates, long ventral plate and dorsal plate; and the female genitalia with a hood-shaped signum.