Conopobathra Vári, 1961

Triberti, Paolo, Staude, Hermann, Sharp, Ian & Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, 2024, Exploring the diversity of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera) in South Africa: host plants, distribution, and DNA barcoding analysis, with the description of nine new species, Zootaxa 5529 (1), pp. 1-51 : 14

Conopobathra Vári, 1961

Four species of this genus are currently known to exist in southern Africa and they have all been thoroughly studied by Vári (1961): C. geraea Vári, 1961 (the type genus), C. gravissima ( Meyrick, 1912) , C. plethorhabda Vári, 1961 and C. carbunculata ( Meyrick, 1912) . The only characteristic these species share is wing venation; however, there are no significant synapomorphies between their male and female genitalia. Since only the female of the type genus has been identified, a complete characterization of this genus is not currently possible. The biology of C. gravissima is the only one that has been studied. Molecular analyses of C. gravissima and C. carbunculata further support this situation, and indicate that these two species do not form a clade ( Table S1 ). Based on all this evidence, it can be inferred that Conopobathra is a polyphyletic entity.