Paragona Staudinger, 1892

Kononenko, Vladimir S., Han, Hui-Lin, Yu, Alexej & V, Ато, 2010, A review of the Eastern Palaearctic genera Paragona Staudinger, 1892 and Paragabara Hampson, 1926 with description of two new species and a new genus (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae: Aventiinae, Hypeninae), Zootaxa 2679, pp. 51-68 : 52

Genus Paragona Staudinger, 1892

Paragona Staudinger, 1892 , in Romanoff N.M (ed.), Mémories sur les Lépidoptéres. 6: 557. Type-species: Acidalia multisignata Christoph, 1881 , by monotypy.

Staudinger 1892 (Quadrifinae); Warren 1914 ( Noctuinae ); Inoue & Sugi 1958 ( Catocalinae ); Sugi 1982 ( Catocalinae ); Nye 1975 ( Ophiderinae ); Poole 1989 ( Ophiderinae ).

Diagnosis. Wingspan 17–22 mm. Small sized moths, resembling Geometridae . Antennae of male serrate; labial palps relatively short, directed forward, covered by dense hairs; hindwing with developed wing pattern, reflecting the pattern of forewing; M2 on hindwing developed. Some species have well expressed patches of metallic-shining scales on dorso-lateral side of abdomen. In male genitalia, uncus moderate or widened, relatively short, straight; juxta bifurcate; valva variable in shape, in some species with costa, apically separate from membrane of valva; harpe present, short; distal part of valva membranous or sclerotized, pointed or with rounded extension. Aedeagus rather large, coecum expressed; vesica without or with 2 small cornuti. In female genitalia, papillae anales wide, quadrangular; anterior apophyses reduced; antrum often with antevaginal plate; ductus bursae rather short, wide; corpus bursae with incrustation of small spines. The genus includes four species distributed in the Manchurian subregion of the Palaearctic and partly in the Oriental region. The generic assignment of three species described in Paragona by Viette (1956, 1958) from Madagascar seems to be doubtful.

Notes. The systematic position of the genus is unclear. Earlier authors placed it to Noctuinae (sensu Hampson 1926), to Catocalinae (sensu Sugi 1982) or to Ophiderinae (sensu Nye 1975), however, the concept, nomenclature and composition of these subfamilies has changed considerably (Lafontaine & Fibiger 2005; Fibiger & Lafontaine 2006; Holloway 2005, 2008, 2009; Lafontaine & Schmidt 2010). We tentatively place the genus Paragona in the subfamily Aventiinae (sensu Holloway 2009) by some characters of structure of male (long sacculus, reduced harpe, shape of valva with costa apically separated from membrane of valva) and female genitalia(reduced anterior apophyses and presence of small pouches on 8 sternite, laterally of ostium), The closest related genera are Prolophota Hampson, 1896 (type species Prolophota trigonifera Hampson, 1896 ) and Anatatha Hampson, 1926 (type species Catada nigrisigna Hampson, 1895 ) of the subfamily Aventiinae (sensu Holloway 2009).