Ptilothyris Walsingham, 1897

Elliott, Imogen R., 2025, Two new species of the Afrotropical genus Ptilothyris Walsingham (Lepidoptera: Lecithoceridae, Torodorinae) from the Ivory Coast, Zootaxa 5632 (3), pp. 557-564 : 558

Ptilothyris Walsingham, 1897

Ptilothyris Walsingham, 1897 , Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 1897, 37.

Type species: Ptilothyris purpurea Walsingham, 1897 by original designation.

Characterisation of the genus

Species of the genus Ptilothyris have strongly bipectinate antenna that are shorter than the length of the forewing and are coloured a dark brown or purplish grey in the basal half and white beyond ( Park et al. 2019). The forewing is elongate and much narrower than the hindwing, dark brown, often with a striking purplish iridescence. The hindwing usually possesses a semi-transparent white or orange-white patch medially and a basal cluster of hair-pencils.

The male genitalia generally have a well-developed uncus that is fan-shaped and is as broad as the basal plate of the gnathos, which is also fan-shaped and trifurcate posteriorly. The juxta is made up of a ventral and dorsal plate; the ventral plate is typically longer with well-developed caudal processes, whilst the dorsal plate is shorter with triangular lateral processes. The abdominal tergites have dense patches of spinules and there is a pair of long hair-pencils originating from the anterior margin of the 8 th abdominal segment.

The genus Ptilothyris is superficially similar to Thubdora Park, 2018 ( Park & Karisch 2021, Park et al. 2022), particularly with regards to wing venation, but can be distinguished by having more elongated forewings, bipectinate antennae and through differences in the male genitalia (which are discussed in the conclusion below).