Phassodes

Phassodes is a moth genus of the family Hepialidae. As of 2018, it is monospecific, consisting of the sole species Phassodes vitiensis; this species is very variable. It is found in Fiji and Samoa.[4] The life cycle is unknown but the larva is presumed to feed underground on the roots of plants or decaying matter.[5]

Phassodes
Six specimens from Viti Levu, Fiji
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hepialidae
Genus: Phassodes
Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
Type species
Phassodes odorevalvula
Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
Species
Synonyms[2]

Species:

  • Leto vitiensis Rothschild, 1895[3]
  • Phassodes bimorpha Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
  • Phassodes guthrei Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
  • Phassodes nausori Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
  • Phassodes odorevalvula Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
  • Phassodes rewaensis Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]
  • Phassodes vitensis Bethune-Baker, 1905[1]

Taxonomic history

The British entomologist George Thomas Bethune-Baker first circumscribed the genus Phassodes in 1905. He included six species, all of which he described in the same work.[1] In 1950, the French entomologist Pierre Viette synonymized Bethune-Baker's P. nausori with P. vitiensis;[6] P. vitiensis was first described by Walter Rothschild in 1895.[3]

References
  1. Bethune-Baker, G. T. (1905). "Notes on a small Collection of Heterocera from the Fiji Islands, with Descriptions of some New Species". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1905 (1): 89–92. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1905.tb08365.x; Pl. 9, Figs. 1–6.
  2. Nielsen, Robinson & Wagner (2000), p. 859.
  3. Rothschild, Walter (1895). "On Two New Moths and an Aberration". Novitates Zoologicae. 2 (4): 482.
  4. Nielsen, Robinson & Wagner (2000), p. 824, 831.
  5. Grehan, John R. (2010). "Structural variants in the morphology of the first abdominal tergite supporting the monophyly of the Latin American genera Cibyra Walker, Druceiella Viette, Pfitzneriella Viette and Trichophassus Le Cerf (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae)" (PDF). Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. 39: 46.
  6. Viette, Pierre E. L. (1950). "Contribution to the Study of Hepialidae (9th Note): The Genus Phassodes Bethune-Baker (Lepidoptera)". Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society. 14 (1): 189–190. hdl:10125/16224.

Works cited


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