Tineovertex Moriuti, 1982

Type species: Tinea melanochrysa Meyrick, 1911, by original designation.

Description. Head: Vertex roughly clothed with dense, erect, black or white scales. Antenna filiform, brown or gray, usually slightly longer than forewing, scape smooth-scaled. Compound eyes large, frons covered with dense scales; maxillary palpus moderately developed, dark fuscous or brown; labial palpus brown with strong lateral and apical bristles on the second segment. Thorax: Dorsum and tegula smooth, covered with black or white scales. Legs extensively covered with scales, hind tibia bearing sparse long hairs dorsally and ventrally. Wings moderately elongate with similar pattern; apices moderately rounded; forewing ground color creamy white with all veins free; hindwing ground color brownish gray with pointed apex, nearly semihyaline, with long pale brown fringe except on basal 1/2 of costa; all veins free and separate basally. Abdomen: Dorsum covered with darker scales, venter with grayish white scales. Abdominal segment VIII with dense slender scales covering genitalia. Male genitalia with a pair of separated uncal lobes, gnathos absent, juxta indistinct, subscaphium membranous, saccus elongate rodshaped; valva simple, elongate-spatulate, inner surface weakly sclerotized with dense setae; phallus cylindrical and nearly straight, vesica usually with cornuti. Female genitalia without corethrogyne scaling, eighth abdominal tergum with a median keel; apophyses anteriores and posteriores long and stout, posteriorly narrowed and rounded with many short spines; eighth abdominal sternum semicircular in ventral aspect with two triangular projections; ostium with short bristles, ovipositor well sclerotized; papilla analis strongly sclerotized and pointed to form piercing apex with minute serrations laterally; corpus bursae with a pair of symmetric signa either present or absent (see Huang et al. 2007).

Distribution. Oriental and Palaearctic Regions.

Remarks. Huang et al. (2007) separated the genus into two species groups: the T. melanochrysa species group with the head and thorax bearing blackish scales, and the T. canicoma species group with the head and thorax bearing whitish or ochreous yellowish scales. Subsequently, Huang et al. (2008) reported on the oviposition behavior and feeding habits of the early stages of T. melanochrysa from Japan, which is the first information on the biology of Tineovertex. Huang et al. (2009) suggested that Tineovertex is related to Coryptilum Zeller, 1839 based on the morphology of the male and female genitalia. Robinson (2009) considered that the piercing ovipositor of Tineovertex, which is shared with Ischnuridia Sauber, 1902, Dinochora Meyrick, 1924, Ectropoceros Diakonoff, 1955, and Psychoides Bruand, 1853 has evolved independently several times in Tineidae. According to a phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences (COI + 18S), the genus Tineovertex is closely related to Coryptilum, with a bootstrap value of 91% (Huang 2008).

The previously proposed species grouping based on external coloration do not appear to be monophyletic; hence, we tentatively arrange the species on the basis of similarities in the male genitalia, such as the shapes of the uncus and valva.