Saphenista bassii ( Razowski, 1999 ), 2024

Brown, John W., 2024, The puzzling distribution of Platphalonidia aenigmana, new species, from the Western U. S. A. and Colombia (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Cochylina), Insecta Mundi 2024 (85), pp. 1-8 : 5

Saphenista bassii ( Razowski, 1999) , new combination

Phalonidia bassii Razowski, 1999: 322 ; Brown 2005: 488.

While examining slides and illustrations of the male genitalia of Phalonidia , I encountered illustrations of those of P. bassii ( Razowski 1999: fig. 3, 4), described from Ecuador. From the drawing it appears that the male genitalia are more similar to species of Saphenista Walsingham than to those of Phalonidia . The most conspicuous feature of Saphenista is the conspicuously Y- or T-shaped distal end of the median process of the transtilla, which is evident in S. bassii . On this basis, the species is transferred to Saphenista . Owing to the similar configuration of the socii, the two genera (i.e., Phalonidia and Saphenista ) have been confused and/or synonymized in the past (e.g., Pogue 1986; Pogue and Mickevitch 1990), but molecular data convincingly separate them ( Brown et al. 2020).