Cryptolectica 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 : 17

Cryptolectica Vári, 1961

Vári (1961) described the genus, which includes two species from South Africa: C. monodecta ( Meyrick, 1912) (type genus) and C. capnodecta Vári, 1961 . He focused on characteristics related to wing venation and genitalia. Later, Kumata et al. (1988a) conducted a revision of Japanese Cryptolectica and added three more species based on similar genital structures to the South African ones, but with different wing venation. They considered the varying position of R5 (stalked with R4, or M1, or free) as part of the variability in forewing venation within Cryptolectica . He also identified some genitalia characteristics useful for defining this genus, such as a simple valva without any inner comb or costal process, male abdominal segment VIII with a median sclerotization of the dorsocephalic apodeme that does not extend onto the tergum, female corpus bursae with many needle- or cone-shaped signa gathered in a group or arranged in multiple rows, prothorax of the last instar larva with seta XD2, and abdominal segment II of the larva with 3 subventral setae (SV1, SV2, and SV3). Based on these characteristics, two additional species have been reported in South Africa: C. euryphanta (Meyrick, 1911) and Cryptolectica terminalina ( Vári, 1961) ( Triberti 2004; Sruoga & De Prins 2023). Additionally, Acrocercops gossypii Vári, 1961 should undoubtedly be included based on its forewing pattern, genital, and pregenital structures.