Plectrocnemia Stephens, 1836

Oláh, János & Johanson, Kjell Arne, 2010, Generic review of Polycentropodidae with description of 32 new species and 19 new species records from the Oriental, Australian and Afrotropical Biogeographical Regions 2435, Zootaxa 2435 (1), pp. 1-63 : 10

Plectrocnemia Stephens, 1836

Plectrocnemia Stephens, 1836: 168 .

Type species: Plectrocnemia senex Stephens nec Pictet = Plectrocnemia geniculata McLachlan , monotypic. Tasmanoplegas Neboiss, 1977: 64 , monotypic, new synonym.

Type species: Tasmanoplegas spilota Neboiss , original designation.

Tasmanoplegas , a monotypic genus described from Tasmania, was described as closely related to Plectrocnemia , and separated only by the stalked fork 2 in hind wings and by details in the genitalia. However, because other Plectrocnemia species have stalked hind wing fork 2, like the Japanese P. corna Ohkawa & Ito , P. okiensis Kobayashi , P. ondakeana Tsuda , P. norikurana Tsuda , and P. tsukuiensis Kobayashi ; the New Zealand P. maclachlani Mosely and P. tuhuae Ward ; and the Chinese P. potchina Mosely , Tasmanoplegas is considered a synonym of Plectrocnemia .

Diagnosis: The discoidal cell on each fore- and hind wing is closed, and the median cell on each forewing closed. The gonopods are robust, short or long, and frequently supplied with a pair of well-developed basal dorsomesal lobes.

Remarks: The only venation character available to distinguish this genus from Polycentropus is the presence of a closed discoidal cell in each hind wing. However, a crossvein s is present in each hind wing in some Polycentropus species as well. Some species have definite parameres, frequently divided into 2 pairs ( Ohkawa & Ito 2007). The presence of parameres in Polycentropodidae was disputed by Schmid (1998).