Noctuidae - Psaphidinae - Nocloini - Lythrodes

Lythrodes radiatus

Male Genitalia

Female Genitalia

Lythrodes Smith 1903

Lythrodes Smith, 1903, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 29: 206.
Type species: Lythrodes radiatus Smith, 1903. Subsequent designation by Hampson, 1910, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 9: 214.

Lythrodes is a small, distinctive genus containing the two smallest species of the Nocloini, Lythrodes radiatus and venatus. Characters of the genus are:

1. These two species are characterized by a cream-yellow forewing with pink-red stripes between the veins and the absence of any other maculation except for vague, white reniform and orbicular spots.

2. The frontal process consists of a well developed round ring with a central vertical ridge and a U-shaped ventral indentation. This form of frontal process is distinctive, and is unique to the Nocloini except for the genus Nocloini New Genus 1.

3. The female ovipositor lobes are very strong and heavily sclerotized.

4. Valve of male genitalia elongate; corona absent, but spines strongest near apex of valve; digitus absent; clasper present, variable between and within species, varying from triangular to three times longer than wide; basal process of sacculus absent; base of vesica thickly covered with hair-like cornuti; long spine-like cornuti without clear groups, although apparently a vague group on a poorly developed diverticulum.

The larva and foodplants of Lythrodes are unknown. Both known species occur in the American southwest.

Lythrodes radiatus