Saphenista Walsingham, 1914

Type species. Conchylis lacteipalpis Walsingham, 1891, by original designation (Walsingham 1914).

The precise circumscription of Saphenista and its putative synonyms (see Brown 2005) has been somewhat elusive owing to the absence of an abdomen of the holotype of the type species of the genus (i.e., Conchylis lacteipalpis). As currently defined, the genus is anchored by species that are superficially similar to its type species and assigned to the genus by Walsingham (1914). The most convincing morphological autapomorphy for Saphenista is the conspicuous Y- or T-shaped median process of the transtilla, which easily separates males from those of all other Cochylina. Razowski (1994) identified the following as putative autapomorphies for the genus: a tooth-like process of the vinculum (highly variable and not always present); a sclerotized pocket at the base of the valva (usually present); an expanded apex of the median process of the transtilla (mentioned above, always present); and the presence of a subterminal prominence of the phallus (absent in many species). Also, males of some species of Saphenista have secondary structures from the venter of the abdomen. For example, S. multistrigata Walsingham, 1914 has a small bilobed process on abdominal segment 7 from which a pair of laterally directed hairpencils originate. Similar structures are reported and illustrated by Razowski and Becker (1983: fig. 3, 21) in S. nauphraga Razowski and Becker, 1983 and S. ficta Razowski and Becker, 1983.

Based on morphological features, primarily the dorso-posteriorly directed socii, Razowski (1985, 1994) concluded that Saphenista is closely related to Phalonidia, and a recent phylogenetic analysis of the subtribe (Brown et al. 2019) provides some support for this conclusion, although in the latter study Saphenista (+ Amallectis Meyrick, 1917) was recognized as one of six major lineages in the subtribe Cochylina, sister to the Phalonidia Group + the Cochylis Group (sensu Brown et al. 2019).

Adults of Saphenista are highly variable in maculation and size (i.e., forewing length). Males lack a forewing costal fold, and most (but not all) species have a hindwing costal roll (hair pencil), the last feature shared with most “advanced” Cochylina (Brown et al. 2019). In contrast, females of many Saphenista species retain the plesiomorphic condition of three spines in the frenulum.