Luciargentis gen. nov., a New Genus Revealed by Morphological and Phylogenetic Evidence in the Family Lecithoceridae

In this study, we describe a new genus, Luciargentis Yu & Wang, gen. nov. based on the new species, Luciargentis obesa Yu & Wang, sp. nov. Additionally, the genus is placed within the subfamily Crocanthinae, satisfying the criteria of Crocanthinae. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis of the family Lecithoceridae using a concatenated dataset that includes one mitochondrial marker (COI) and six nuclear markers (EF-1α, GAPDH, RpS5, CAD, wingless, and MDH), incorporating 17 exemplars from NCBI and 7 newly sequenced exemplars from this study. The yield tree topologies showed that Luciargentis obesa forms a strongly supported monophyletic group with Crocanthes prasinopis, a species of Crocanthinae. Moreover, Luciargentis + Crocanthes were found to be sister groups to Torodorinae. Images of the adults, wing venation, and genitalia of the new species are provided.