Genus Platyscopus Evans
Platyscopus specimen from Dedari
Genus Platyscopus Evans 1942a: 145. Type species: Platyscopus badius Evans, by original designation
Known species: Two species are described, both from inland areas of Western Australia.
Comments: In creating the genus Platyscopus, Evans (1942a) originally described two species from the R.E. Turner material collected at Dedari, WA, in 1936 as two different species, P. badius (based on a single female) and P. coloratus (based on a single male). He indicated at the time that they may have represented male and female of the same species and subsequently (Evans 1966) he synonymised them without comment. It was a mistake to designate the species based on a female holotype as the type of the genus and give it priority following synonymy when P. coloratus had a male, rather than a female, holotype. In 1972, Evans added P. moorei Evans, from Coolgardie which is about 60km from Dedari, without providing a means to differentiate the species from P. badius. Two additional specimens of Platyscopus have been collected at Dedari and the male matches Evans' description of P. moorei. However, the type of P. badius in BMNH needs to be examined to validate P. moorei as a distinct species. The elongation of the head distinguishes the genus Platyscopus from other genera of Penthimiinae in Australia.