The female genital structure of some Hepialid moths with a historical review of their terminology

Abstract

The morphological works on the female genital structure of Hepialidae made by Bourgogne (1949), Stekol’nikov (1967), Mutuura (1972), Dugdale (1973) and Kristensen (1978) are reviewed and summarized. The confusion on the homology of 8th sternum and the origin of lamella antevaginalis are shortly discussed. The female genital structures of six hepialid species are described and illustrated. The terminology proposed by Kristensen is the most useful to describe this structure clearly. But, the term lamella antevaginalis is not adopted, because it was originally proposed for the female genital structure of Ditrysia.