Paysandisia, HOULBERT, 1918

Moraes, Simeão De Souza & Duarte, Marcelo, 2014, Phylogeny of Neotropical Castniinae (Lepidoptera: Cossoidea: Castniidae): testing the hypothesis of the mimics as a monophyletic group and implications for the arrangement of the genera, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 170 (2), pp. 362-399 : 393

PAYSANDISIA HOULBERT, 1918 ( FIGS 2, 3)

Type species

Castnia josepha Oberthür, 1914

Included species

Paysandisia archon ( Burmeister, 1879) , Paysandisia uruguayana ( Burmeister, 1879) (Geyeria) comb. nov.

Comments

Paysandisia archon was introduced into Europe and became an important pest on ornamental palms (Sarto i Monteys, 2002; Alario, 2004). This preference for species of Palmae, as well as some morphological traits, is shared with Eupalamides . Although the general genital morphology, especially the aedeagus and the shape of the uncus and valva, is similar in Eupalamides and Paysandisia , the absence of support led us to retain the two genera. Future morphological studies may show that the species included in Paysandisia are more closely related to other Eupalamides species that were not included in this study, in which case the two genera must be synonymized.

Paysandisia uruguayana was grouped with P. archon in both analyses that did not include T. metallica . Although the grouping was based on homoplastic characters, such as the nude bulla seminalis (89: 1), the absence of micropapillae on the inner surface of the bulla seminalis (92: 0), and the bursa without a signa (94: 1), the general morphological traits for male and female support this arrangement.