Osrhoes coronta Druce, the New World palaeosetid moth: A reappraisal, with description of a new type of female genital apparatus (Lepidoptera, Exoporia)

Abstract

AbstractThe monobasic Colombian genus Osrhoes is redescribed on the basis of the male holotype and a female paratype of O. coronta Druce, 1900. Osrhoes is unique among the exoporian moths so far known in having a long internal duct from the ductus bursae to a chamber adjacent to the ovipore, a functional analogy of the 'ductus seminalis' of ditrysian Lepidoptera; the subgenital plates are very large and completely fused in the midline, i.e., there is no 'intergenital cleft'. Strong reasons for retaining Osrhoes in the non-ditrysian grade are the homoneurous venation and large forewing jugal lobe, while apomorphies supporting its assignment to the Exoporia-Hepialoidea include, e.g. its elongate intercalary sclerite, postapical Rs3, male genitalia with typical hepialoid hinged juxta/trulleum complex and lack of sclerotized phallus. The absence of inter-M crossveins and the extreme reduction of the maxillae are currently considered diagnostic traits of the family Palaeosetidae, which is otherwise represented by three small Australasian genera. The wing proportions and absence of a forewing 'anal loop' in Osrhoes probably also indicate relationships to palaeosetids. Although the status of the crossvein character as an apomorphy is debatable, it is preferred at present to uphold the tentative àssignment of Osrhoes to the Palaeosetidae.