Blastobasis marmorosella

Blastobasis marmorosella is a moth in the family Blastobasidae.[1] It is found on the Canary Islands, Madeira and in Portugal and Spain.[2] This species has been accidentally introduced to Australia and New Zealand.[3]

Blastobasis marmorosella
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Blastobasidae
Genus: Blastobasis
Species:
B. marmorosella
Binomial name
Blastobasis marmorosella
(Wollaston, 1858)
Synonyms[1]
  • Oecophora marmorosella Wollaston, 1858
  • Oecophora fuscomaculella Ragonot, 1879
  • Blastobasis fuscomaculella (Ragonot, 1879)
  • Oecophora seeboldiella Kreithner, 1881

Taxonomy edit

This species was first described by Thomas Vernon Wollaston in 1858 and named Oecophora marmorosella.[4] In 1892 Hans Rebel placed this species within the genus Blastobasis.[5] In 2004 this species was reviewed.[1] The female lectotype, collected in Madeira, is held in the Natural History Museum, London.[1]

Description edit

This species was described in 2004 by Ole Karsholt and Sergey Yu Sinev as follows:

Wingspan 16-23 mm. Head and scape of antenna light brown mottled with dark brown; flagellum dark brown, indistinctly lighter ringed, with deep basal notch in male. Labial palpi long and slender; segment 2 yellowish mottled with brown; segment 3 as long as segment 2, brown mottled with blackish. Thorax and tegulae dark grey brown. Forewing relatively broad with somewhat pointed apex, light brown mottled with dark brown and fuscous, base and basal part of dorsum blackish brown; a blackish patch at dorsum at 13, continuing as a fascia to costa; a blackish spot between this and base and one such spot between the blackish fascia and a double black spot at 45; indistinct black spots along termen from subapical to tornal spots; fringes light brownish grey. Hindwing rather broad, apically somewhat rounded, grey with light brown-grey fringes.[1]

Distribution edit

This species is likely indigenous to Madeira and Porto Santo.[3] It was first recorded in New Zealand in 1988 and in the 19 years since that first record only 8 specimens have been collected.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e Ole Karsholt; Sergej Yurjevitsch Sinev (20 December 2004). "Contribution to the Lepidoptera fauna of the Madeira Islands. Part 4. Blastobasidae". Contributions to Entomology. 54 (2): 418–420. doi:10.21248/CONTRIB.ENTOMOL.54.2.387-463. ISSN 0005-805X. Wikidata Q105897744.
  2. ^ "Fauna Europaea". fauna-eu.org. Retrieved 2022-05-14.
  3. ^ a b c RJB Hoare; N Hudson (December 2018). "Adventive moths (Lepidoptera) established in mainland New Zealand: Additions and new identifications since 2001". Australian Entomologist. 45 (3): 273–324. ISSN 1320-6133. Wikidata Q110305107.
  4. ^ T Vernon Wollaston (1858). "XII.—Brief diagnostic characters of undescribed Madeiran insects". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 1 (2): 121. doi:10.1080/00222935808696882. ISSN 0374-5481. Wikidata Q99838337.
  5. ^ H Rebel (1892). "Beitrag zur Microlepidopterenfauna des canarischen Archipels". Annalen des K. K. Naturhistorischen Hofmuseums (in German). 7 (3): 276–278. JSTOR 41767713. Wikidata Q100979033.