Cnephasia


Cnephasia is a genus of tortrix moths. It belongs to the subfamily Tortricinae and therein to the tribe Cnephasiini, of which it is the type genus.

Taxonomy and systematics

The type species around which Cnephasia was established by J. Curtis in 1826 was claimed to be "Tortrix logiana". However, this was a misidentification; the name of T. logiana was until the early 20th century frequently applied to related species in error.
Curtis simply repeated the mistake of A.H. Haworth, who had in his 1811 volume of Lepidoptera Britannica discussed a Cnephasia under Clerck's name, but the original misidentification may well go back to Linnaeus' treatment of "T. logiana" in Systema naturae. Eventually, this was resolved, and the type species of Cnephasia was determined to be the tortrix moth described as Olethreutes pasiuana by J. Hübner in 1822.

Species

The currently recognized species of Cnephasia are:
"Cnephasia" jactatana does not seem to belong in this genus.

Former species

Synonyms

Obsolete scientific names for Cnephasia are:
  • Anoplocnephasia Réal, 1953
  • Brachycnephasia Réal, 1953
  • Chephasia
  • Cnephasianella
  • Cnephasiella Adamczewski, 1936
  • Cnephosia
  • Hypostephanuncia Réal, 1951
  • Hypostephanuntia
  • Sciaphila Treitschke in Ochsenheimer, 1829
Hypostephanuncia is sometimes listed as a junior synonym of the closely related genus Eana, but its type species is C. ecullyana. Whether the monotypic Sphaleroptera is a distinct and valid genus or merely a specialized offshoot of Cnephasia is not yet resolved; some authors include it here, while others don't.