Taxonomic study of the genus Erechthias (Lepidoptera, Tineidae) from the Ogasawara Islands, with two new records and four new species

This study reviewed the genus Erechthias Meyrick, 1880 on the Ogasawara Islands, Japan with regards to eight recognized species, two of which were known (E. itoi Moriuti & Kadohara, 1994 and E. zebrina (Butler, 1881 )), two of which are newly recorded (E. minuscula (Walsingham, 1897) and E. atririvis (Meyrick, 1931 )), and four of which are new species (E. mirabilis sp. nov., E. oculus sp. nov., E. flavimacula sp. nov., and E. nidumicola sp. nov.).

Photographs of adult specimens and of their genitalia as well as illustrations of wing venation are provided. A preliminary phylogenetic tree based on mitochondrial DNA (the partial COI region, DNA barcode region) includes seven Erechthias species. Furthermore, haplotype networks were also constructed using DNA barcode regions for three species distributed across three or more island groups (Mukojima Islands, Chichijima Islands, Hahajima Islands, and other Islands).

All examined E. flavimacula sp. nov. and E. nidumicola sp. nov. had unique haplotypes and were divided into three units corresponding to the group of islands.