Anerastiini

Anerastia lotella, photographed by John Walters.

Belongs within: Pyralidae.

The Anerastiini is a group of moths with caterpillars feeding on grass stems (Horak 2003).

Characters (from Horak 2003): Proboscis reduced. Male genitalia with bipartite uncus; gnathos tip laterally or apically conspicuously flattened. Female with dorsal excavation in hind margin of T8; signum (if present) in form of sclerotised plate with scattered large, hollow, sharp thorns, or remnants thereof; ovipositor lobes laterally compressed, usually with lobes enlarged, soft, flattened, folded back and appressed to each other, outer surfaces sparsely bristled (lobes rarely naked and strongly sclerotised, but still broadly rounded and very thin).

<==Anerastiini [Anerastiina, Anerastiinae, Hypsotropinae, Peoriinae, Peoriini, Peosiinae]
    |--Peoria H03
    |--Maliarpha H03
    |--Parematheudes H03
    |--Ematheudes punctella H03
    |--Hypsotropha chlorogramma H03, P27
    |--Epidauria fulvella H03
    |--Comorta zophopleura H03
    |--Lioprosopa H03
    |--Emmalocera H03
    |--Atascosa H03
    |--Homosassa incudella H03
    |--Arivaca poohella H03
    |--Coenochroa H03
    `--Anerastia H03
         |--*A. lotella [=Tinea lotella] H03
         `--‘Tinea’ dignella H03

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[H03] Horak, M. 2003. Reassessment of the Anerastiini and their status in the Phycitinae (Pyralidae): A century-long controversy. Invertebrate Systematics 17: 89-98.

[P27] Philpott, A. 1927. The maxillae in the Lepidoptera. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 57: 721-746.