Dactylethrella

Dactylethrella is a genus of moths in the family Gelechiidae. The genus was described by Thomas Bainbrigge Fletcher in 1940 and is a replacement name for Dactylethra Meyrick, 1906 (preoccupied by Dactylethra Cuvier, 1829).

Dactylethrella
Dactylethrella bryophilella
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Gelechiidae
Subfamily:	Anacampsinae
Genus:	Dactylethrella T. B. Fletcher, 1940
Synonyms
Dactylethra Meyrick, 1906 nec. Dactylethra Cuvier, 1829

Taxonomy

The type species of both aforementioned genera is Dactylethra tetroctas Meyrick, 1906 from Sri Lanka, later a junior subjective synonym of Dactylethrella candida (Stainton, 1859).

Species

The species of this genus are:^[1][2]

• Dactylethrella bryophilella (Walsingham, 1891) – Gambia
• Dactylethrella candida (Stainton, 1859) – Sri Lanka
• Dactylethrella chionitis (Meyrick, 1910) – South Africa
• Dactylethrella globulata (Meyrick, 1910) – Sri Lanka
• Dactylethrella incondita (Meyrick, 1913)  – Sri Lanka
• Dactylethrella leuconota Bidzilya & Mey, 2011 – Namibia
• Dactylethrella siccifolii (Walsingham, 1881) – South Africa
• Dactylethrella tetrametra (Meyrick, 1913) – South Africa

Thes Asian species (amongst others) are subsequently placed in other genera:

• Dactylethrella catarina Pnomarenko  – China
• Dactylethrella shenae Li & Zheng, 1998 – China
• Dactylethrella tegulifera (Meyrick)  – China

(See also "Dactylethrella albidella" of some listings, may be from protonym Nothris albidella Snellen, 1884, later Empalactis albidella (Snellen, 1884)).