Paratepa Razowski and Becker, 2001

Paratepa Razowski and Becker 2001: 106; Brown 2005: 476.

Type species: Paratepa ferruginea Razowski and Becker, 2001 .

Diagnosis and remarks. Paratepa was described for the single new species P. ferruginea, which was based on a series of male and female specimens from Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Federal District, São Paulo, Paraná, and Santa Catarina, Brazil. Razowski and Becker (2001) provided illustrations of the male and female genitalia, but not the adult. Adults of Paratepa (Figs 15, 16) are nearly indistinguishable from those of the closely related Atepa Razowski, 1991, a Central America genus, but the forewing ground color in Paratepa is usually darker orange compared to the paler yellow orange in Atepa, and males of Paratepa possess a characteristic euliine hairpencil from the foreleg femur (Brown 1990) that is absent in Atepa . The two genera can be separated by features of the male and female genitalia. In the male genitalia of Atepa, the valvae are long and slender, with a conspicuously pointed apex and a broad sacculus (greater than half the width of the valva); and the transtilla has a pair of elongate, subbasal lobes (Razowski 1992: figs. 1‒4). In the male genitalia of Paratepa (Fig. 35), the valvae are broader with a rounded apex and a narrow sacculus; and the transtilla has a pair of short, submedian, triangular processes. The two genera share a short, broad phallus. The female genitalia of the two are similar, with the posterior portion of the ductus bursae (which is undifferentiated from the corpus bursae in P. argentinana) strongly sclerotized, and the anterior portion (along with the corpus bursae) membranous. The two can be separated by the deeply lobed posterior margin of the sterigma in Atepa (see Razowski 1991: figs. 5‒7).

Distribution and biology. The genus is recorded from Brazil, Paraguay ( USNM), and Argentina (see below). The early stages are unknown.