Tarema Schaus, 1896

Laurent, Ryan A. St & Kawahara, Akito Y., 2019, Reclassification of the Sack-bearer Moths (Lepidoptera, Mimallonoidea, Mimallonidae), ZooKeys 815, pp. 1-114 : 19

Tarema Schaus, 1896 Figs 14, 51, 99, 100; Suppl. material 3: Plate 3

Type species.

Tarema rivara Schaus, 1896.

Diagnosis.

Hoary in appearance due to generous amounts of light gray scales present over the entirety of the wings and body. Tarema are similar to Alheita , particularly by the small size of the moths of both genera, and the postmedial lunule. However, the ventral surface of Tarema is not as plainly maculated due to the presence of postmedial lines and the light gray scales.

Apomorphies.

(1) Uniquely shaped, often spiked projections emanating from the costal valva apodeme (Fig. 14a); (2) Robust gnathos plate not affixed to tegumen along its length as in related genera (Fig. 14b; Suppl. material 3: Plate 3, 11: A); (3) Pair of elongated spines on phallus, one shorter spine present dorsally, the other more elongated extending laterally nearly length of phallus (Fig. 14c).

Remarks.

St Laurent et al. (2018a) did not include this genus in their phylogeny and instead placed this genus in Lacosominae: Alheitini based on morphology, due to strong similarities with the genus Alheita that was included. Our ongoing molecular work, which includes broadened taxon coverage, and Tarema , fully supports this placement (St Laurent et al. in prep.). Furthermore, the morphological analyses carried out in the present study place Tarema nested within Alheitini , either sister to Herbinalla (constrained ML analysis, Fig. 1) or sister to the remainder of Alheitini (unconstrained ML and parsimony analyses, Suppl. materials 5, 7 respectively).