"In an overview of the
Saphenista group of genera, Razowski (1985) provided a brief description of
Platphalonidia (with
Phalonia felix Walsingham, 1895 designated as the type species) for “over 10 species” from the “Neotropical Region and southern part of the Nearctic Subregion.” He did not enumerate the 10 species he transferred to the genus. He later (Razowski 2011) synonymized
Platphalonidia with
Phalonidia without comment, apparently believing that
P. felix was assigned more appropriately to
Phalonidia, which left the remaining species without a genus. However, in the same paper Razowski (2011) described
Platphalonia for the “left- overs” (i.e., “twenty-nine species” not enumerated) with
Saphenista mystica Razowski & Becker, 1983 designated as the type species of the new genus. Based on facies and male genitalia,
felix appears to be congeneric with
mystica and not with species of
Phalonidia. Our multi-gene and barcode analyses also support this conclusion. Hence, we resurrect
Platphalonidia and propose the synonymy of
Platphalonia. We restrict to
Phalonidia those species with erect socii, which neither
P. felix nor
P. mystica possesses." - Brown et al. (2019)
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