Anthozela Meyrick, 1913

Razowski, Józef & Brown, John W., 2012, Descriptions of new Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) reared from native fruit in Kenya, Zootaxa 3222, pp. 1-27 : 8-9

Anthozela Meyrick, 1913

Type species: Anthozela chrysoxantha Meyrick, 1913 .

The taxonomic history and circumscription of Anthozela is somewhat complicated and involves species previously placed under at least five contemporary generic names: Anthozela , Gephyroneura Obraztsov, 1968 , Mehteria Koçak, 1981 , Loboschiza Diakonoff, 1968 , and Cimeliomorpha Diakonoff, 1966 . Anthozela was described by Meyrick to accommodate the single species A. chrysoxantha from South Africa; Ghesquière (1940) added A. anonidii Ghesquière, 1940 , from the Belgian Congo. Clarke (1958) provided illustrations of the adult and male genitalia of the lectotype of “ Laspeyresia ” hemidoxa Meyrick, 1907 , from India (most recently included in Mehteria ); Obraztsov (1968) provided illustrations of the head, wing venation, and genitalia of the latter, which he designated as the type species of his genus Gephyroneura ; and Diakonoff (1984) provided illustrations of the genitalia of Gephyroneura bathysema Diakonoff, 1984 , from Indonesia. Koçak (1981) recognized that Gephyroneura was preoccupied, and proposed the replacement name Mehteria .

Brown (2005) included two species in Anthozela : chrysoxantha and anonidii , and six species in Mehteria : bathysema , hemidoxa (Meyrick, 1907) , mediana (Walker, 1866) (with synonyms gratulata (Meyrick, 1916), sulfurella (Pagenstecher, 1900), and turifera (Meyrick, 1912)), novarana (Felder and Rogenhofer, 1875), perdigna (Kuznetsov, 1976) , and theonarcha (Meyrick, 1911). Horak (2006) proposed the synonymy of Mehteria with Anthozela , assigning hemidoxa , bathysema , and hilaris (Turner, 1916) to Anthozela , bringing to five the number of included species (see Appendix 1). Horak (2006) transferred mediana and its synonyms (two of which, gratulata and turifera, she elevated to species status), theonarcha, and cinnabaritis (Meyrick, 1928) to Loboschiza . Although Brown (2005) included novarana in Anthozela, Kuznetsov (1997) had previously transferred the species to Cimeliomorpha , a new combination overlooked by Brown. According to Horak (2006), the correct placement of G. perdigna remains unresolved (see Apendix 1).

The male genitalia of Anthozela are distinguished by a highly modified gnathos (sensu Horak 2006) consisting of a pair of large, dorsoposteriorly-projecting lobes together forming a hood-shaped structure over the top of the tegumen, each lobe with a row of peglike setae along the dorsal and lateral margin. In the female genitalia there is a slightly bulbous swelling at the posterior end of the corpus bursae (at the junction with the ductus bursae) from which the ductus seminalis arises; two long, curved, thorn-shaped signa; and a frail, membranous accessory sac (sensu Horak 2006) or “parabursa” at the anterior end of the corpus bursae.

Previously reported food plants for the genus include Anonidium manii Engl. & Diels (Annonaceae) for Anthozela anonidii ; Pavetta sp. ( Rubiaceae ) for Anthozela chrysoxantha ; and Piper kadsura (Choisy) Ohwi and Piper nigrum L. ( Piperaceae ) for Anthozela hemidoxa (Brown et al. 2010) .