A taxonomic review of Prays Hübner, 1825 (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutoidea, Praydidae) from China with descriptions of two new species Jae-Cheon Sohn & Chun-Sheng Wu Our review of the Chinese species of Prays Hübner, 1825 proposes two new species: Prays kalligraphos sp. n., from Sichuan, and P. tineiformis sp. n., from Hainan, and reports one new record of Prays delta Moriuti, 1977. External morphology and genitalia are described and illustrated. Keys to all seven Chinese Prays are provided for the adults and genitalia of each sex where available. Jae-Cheon Sohn*, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, 4112 Plant Sciences Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
[email protected] Chun-Sheng Wu, Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, China.
[email protected] Introduction forewing chorda, antennal scape without pecten, Praydides are a group of Yponomeutoidea whose one-segmented maxillary palpi, and the abdominal systematic position remains uncertain. In the terga without spines (Dugdale et al. 1998). last century, two opinions of their placement in Yponomeutoidea were prevalent: i.e. as a sub- Prays Hübner, 1825 is the largest, if not only, genus family of Yponomeutidae (Kyrki 1990, Dugdale et of Praydidae with globally 40 described species al. 1998) or as a subfamily of Plutellidae (Heppner (Lewis & Sohn, unpublished). The genus may not be 1998). This is apparently due to their mosaic char- familiar even to lepidopterists, but the leaf-mining acteristics which fail to show complete affinity with or bud-boring larvae occasionally cause substantial either family (Pierce & Metcalfe 1935, Friese 1960, economic losses in agriculture (Carter 1984), as seen Moriuti 1977).