Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873)

Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Karsholt, Ole, Kravchenko, Vasiliy & Šumpich, Jan, 2019, An annotated checklist of Gelechiidae (Lepidoptera) of Israel with description of two new species, Zootaxa 4677 (1), pp. 1-68 : 53

Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873)

Gelechia (? Bryotropha ) operculella Zeller, 1873 —Verh. Zool.-bot. Ges. Wien 23 (Abh.): 262, pl. 3, fig. 17.

Gelechia terrella Walker, 1864 —List Spec. Lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 30: 1024 (preocc. Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775).

Bryotropha solanella Boisduval, 1874 —J. Soc. centr. Hort. Fr. 2 (8): 713.

Gelechia tabacella Ragonot, 1879 —Bull. Soc. ent. Fr. 5 (9): cxlvi.

Gelechia sedata Butler, 1880 —Cist. Ent. 2: 560.

Gelechia piscipellis Howard, 1897 — U.S. Dept. Agric. Div. Ent. Bull. 7: 76.

Phthorimaea argentinae Povolný, 1989 —Steenstrupia 15: 95.

Records. Bodenheimer 1930a: 174 ( solanella ); Amsel 1933: 125 ( solanella ); Bodenheimer 1937: 100; Bytinski-Salz 1966: 34; Yathom & Meisner 1966: 167.

Material examined. 2 ex., Daganya , (Palmoni) ( SMNK) ; 1 ♀, Beth Dagon , 30.ix.1964 (Shoham) ; 5 ♀, Rehovoth, Volkomi , ix.1978 (Kaplan) ; 1 ♀, Tel Aviv, 15.vii.1975 (Kaplan) ; 1 ♀, Hazeva, Field School , 26.iv.1998, Malaise Trap (Ashkenazi) ; 1 ♂, slopes by Yflach , 31.v.2004 (Kravchenko) (all TAU) .

Host plant. In Israel larvae feed on Solanum tuberosum L. and S. melongena L.

Distribution. Neotropical species that has been introduced into all continents except Antarctica ( CABI 2019).