Lophaeola [SEP] parent taxon
Lophaeola
Lophaeola is a genus of moth in the family Gelechiidae. It contains the species Lophaeola inquinata, which is found in Brazil.
The wingspan is about 9 mm. The forewings are light greyish-ochreous irrorated fuscous, with various irregularly scattered ill-defined short markings of dark fuscous irroration, including a dash above the dorsum before the middle, a spot on the costa beyond the middle, and a longitudinal streak in the disc posteriorly. There is also some brownish suffusion towards the apex. The hindwings are
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of