Musotiminae, Meyrick, 1884

Singh, Navneet, Ranjan, Rahul, Talukdar, Avishek, Joshi, Rahul, Kirti, Jagbir Singh, Chandra, Kailash & Mally, Richard, 2022, A catalogue of Indian Pyraloidea (Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5197 (1), pp. 1-423 : 34-35

2.6. Musotiminae

Diversity and distribution: predominantly tropical Musotiminae comprise 208 valid species in 23 genera worldwide (Nuss et al. 2003 – 2022, Léger et al. 2020). In India, 18 species are reported in seven genera, representing 8.65% of the global Musotiminae diversity. Of the seven genera recorded from India, three genera are known through single species and the other four genera are reported by fewer than 10 species ( Fig. 21 ). In India, Musotiminae are most diverse in the North East, followed by the central Himalaya and the Western Ghats. The West- and North Western Himalaya is represented by two species, Deccan Peninsula, East Himalaya and Gangetic plain are inhabited by a single Musotiminae species each, whereas, the remaining biogeographic zones lacks Musotiminae ( Fig. 22 ).

Adult characters: small, delicate, broad-winged, long-legged moths, sometimes with a somewhat Acentropinae-like resting position and cataclystiform wing pattern that might include a pale discal mark. Instead of chaetosemata, the imagines bear a radiating scale tuft on the head. Ocelli are usually well-developed and large. The labial palpi are usually upturned. The praecinctorium is unilobed, and the spinula is present. The forewing lacks the CuP. In the hindwing Sc+R 1 is anastomosed with Rs beyond the cell, and Rs is not stalked with M 1. In male genitalia, the gnathos, which articulates with the uncus-tegumen junction and bears a ventrad process, is nearly as long as the long, sparsely setose uncus, and rarely shorter or divided. In the female genitalia, the ductus seminalis originates beyond the middle of the ductus bursae ( Yoshiyasu 1985, Munroe & Solis 1999, Holloway et al. 2001, Nuss et al. 2003–2022, Yen et al. 2004).

Larval characters: the immature stages of several Austral-Asian Musotiminae have been described in recent years: those of Austromusotima Yen & Solis by Yen et al. (2004), of Lygomusotima Solis & Yen in Solis, Yen & Goolsby and Neomusotima Yoshiyasu by Solis et al. (2004), and those of the Southeast Asian stem-borer Siamusotima aranea Solis & Yen by Solis et al. (2005a, b). The larvae of Musotima nitidalis (Walker) , introduced to England, is described in Evans et al. (2014).

Food plants: the caterpillars of Musotiminae feed externally or as leaf miners or stem borers on ferns, a habit that they share with the (unrelated) Lathrotelinae ( Yen et al. 2004, Solis et al. 2005a, b, 2017, Léger et al. 2020).

Figures

FIGURE 21. Species diversity of Indian Musotiminae genera.

FIGURE 22. Species diversity of Indian Musotiminae in different biogeographic zones/zones.