Gargela Walker, 1864

Léger, Théo, 2024, Half of the Diversity Undescribed: Integrative Taxonomy Reveals 32 New Species and a High Cryptic Diversity in the Scopariinae and Crambinae of the Philippines (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists 3 (2), pp. 1-93 : 35-40

Gargela Walker, 1864

Gargela * Walker, 1864: 815.

Type species: Gargela subpurella Walker, 1864 .

= Mixophyla Meyrick, 1887: 269 . Type species: Crambus ermineus Moore, 1886

= Angonia Snellen, 1893: 54–56 . Type species: Angonia crambidalis Snellen, 1893 . Hampson 1896: 190 (syn.)

= Mixophila * Hampson, 1896: 190

DIAGNOSIS

Forewing usually silvery white with curved median and postmedian lines ( Song et al., 2009). In male genitalia, Gargela species show the following characters: uncus short, beak-shaped, with two characteristic ventral basal arms bearing a tuft of thick setae; gnathos short, beak-shaped; valva with costal arm narrow, sclerotized, elongate, with apex pointed upwards or posterad; and juxta distally with two lateral arms with scattered setae. In female genitalia, Gargela species show the following characters: papillae anales evenly rounded, posterior apophyses short, ductus bursae usually covered with spines in basal half, and corpus bursae with two signa.

DISTRIBUTION

Known from the Oriental and Australasian (Papua) regions. Six species are reported from the Philippines: Gargela minuta Song et al., 2009 , Gargela valvaspinae sp. n., Gargela acutibrachium sp. n., Gargela polyacantha Li, 2019 , Gargela xanthocasis (Meyrick, 1897) , Gargela negrosensis sp. n.

PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS

Molecular phylogenies recovered Gargela as part of the Diptychophorini, sister to the three other Diptychophorini included in the study ( Diptychophora Zeller, 1866 , Glaucocharis Meyrick, 1938 , Microcausta Hampson, 1895 ) ( Léger et al., 2019).