Paraphasis perkinsi (Walsingham)

Austin, Kyhl A. & Rubinoff, Daniel, 2023, Rediscoveries and Presumed Extinctions of Hawaiian Leaf-roller Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 55, pp. 11-27 : 15

Paraphasis perkinsi (Walsingham)

Presumed extinct

This enigmatic genus and species is known only from the male collected in 1894 from 3000–4000 ft elevation on

Kauaʻi by R.C.L. Perkins. This area has been consistently surveyed by us and other entomologists over the past century. Walsingham (1907) originally described Paraphasis in Tineidae , but Zimmerman (1978) treated it as a tortricid. The illustration of the head in Zimmerman (1978) appears to show a basally scaled proboscis, a character only very rarely seen in Tortricidae ( Diakonoff 1977) . In addition, the wing venation and genitalia would be highly unusual for a tortricid. In the absence of a more compelling family placement, we consider it a tortricid for the purposes of this paper.