A new type of scent organ in Lepidoptera: a giant thoracic pheromone-disseminating structure in a male incurvarioid moth (Lepidoptera, Adelidae).

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Abstract
Scent organs in male Lepidoptera are sources of pheromones, and have been found in many species belonging to various higher taxa. Here I report the discovery of a unique scent-producing structure in the male of Ceromitia chalcocapna Meyrick (Adelidae). This is the first record of a male scent organ in any family of the Incurvarioidea, a superfamily of the clade Neolepidoptera of the suborder Glossata. At the same time this is the first case of a highly specialized male scent organ to be found on the modified posterior part of the thorax in Lepidoptera. Club-like scent scales, densely packed on the two enlarged, hemispherical surfaces of the metepimeron, metameron and metacoxa, are incorporated within a scent-disseminating apparatus which also comprises modified abdominal segments and the thoraco-abdominal articulation.