Parapediasia Błeszyński, 1966

Landry, Bernard & Léger, Théo, 2024, Taxonomic revision of the Crambinae (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae sensu lato) of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, Revue suisse de Zoologie 131 (2), pp. 357-387 : 380

Parapediasia Błeszyński, 1966

This is a relatively small genus known to contain 12 species described from the Western Hemisphere (Nuss et al., 2024), i.e., the United States of America, the Antilles, Colombia, and Brazil. Only P. teterrellus ( Zincken, 1821) has been reported from outside its region of origin, i.e., in the Canary Islands, China and Japan, where it is considered an invasive species ( Slamka, 2008; Gao et al., 2013). The monophyly of the genus was established by Landry (1995) on the basis of the presence of sclerotized projections on the phallus dorsoapically. The placement of the unique Galápagos species described here is based on the presence of this character. Larval host plants are known for P. teterrellus , an economically important turf grass moth known as the bluegrass webworm, and P. decorellus ( Zincken, 1821) , both reared on Poaceae .