Pollex, new subgenus

Fibiger, Michael, 2007, Revision of the Micronoctuidae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea). Part 1, Taxonomy of the Pollexinae, Zootaxa 1567 (1), pp. 1-116 : 86

Subgenus Pollex, new subgenus

Type species: Pollex crispus Fibiger, new species, described below.

The subgenus Pollex has many highly derived character states, but only in their internal genitalia. It comprises 2 structurally distinctive species. Although there are many apomorphic character states for the subgenus, the species still share the majority of the structural modifications found in subgenera Bilobiana and Proma , so Pollex is treated as a third subgenus rather than as a genus. The subgenus is characterised by the following 8 character states; apomorphies are indicated by (apo.):

Male genitalia.

Tegumen: relatively long, much longer than vinculum.

Valve: much longer than wide (apo.).

Fultura superior: fused with dorsal part of tegumen; ventral part of fultura superior fused with dorsal part of juxta-anellus plate.

Ampulla: very long and extremely narrow (apo.).

Pollex : enormous, sickle-like, upturned (apo.); easily mistaken for ampulla.

Digitus: asymmetrical; minute, smallest digitus in subfamily (apo.) (in type-species digitus reduced basally to a heavily sclerotised hump.

Phallus: very long and narrow.

Differential diagnosis. The valve is much longer than wide, longer than those of species in the subgenera Proma and Bilobiana (in Bilobiana the valve is shorter than wide); the digitus is asymmetrical in most species, but in some species it is diminutive or absent; the ampulla is proportionally shorter than those of the other subgenera; the most distinctive character is that the pollex is larger than in any other group of Micronoctuidae .