Description of the pupae of Brachodes species (Lepidoptera, Cossoidea, Brachodidae) with emphasis on diagnostic generic characters

This work presents the first descriptions of the pupal morphology of three species of Palaearctic brachodid moths, Brachodes compar (Staudinger, 1879), Brachodes flavescens (Turati, 1919) and Brachodes cf. rasata (Staudinger, 1900), which represent three distinct species groups within the genus. The main morphological features are described and illustrated with photographs and line drawings. Diagnostic features and a key for the identification of pupae for the genus Brachodes on the basis of the studied species and the related species, Brachodes funebris (Feisthammel, 1883) and Brachodes gaditana (Rambur, 1866) are proposed and discussed.